Computing 3SLS Solutions of Simultaneous Equation Models with a Possible Singular Variance-Convariance Matrix

Algorithms for computing the three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator usually require the disturbance convariance matrix to be non-singular. However, the solution of a reformulated simultaneous equation model (SEM) results into the redundancy of this condition. Having as a basic tool the QR decomposition, the 3SLS estimator, its dispersion matrix and methods for estimating the singular disturbance covariance matrix and derived. Expressions revealing linear combinations between the observations which become redundant have also been presented. Algorithms for computing the 3SLS estimator after the SEM have been modified by deleting or adding new observations or variables are found not to be very efficient, due to the necessity of removing the endogeneity of the new data or by re-estimating the disturbance covariance matrix. Three methods have been described for solving SEMs subject to separable linear equalities constraints. The first method considers the constraints as additional precise observations while the other two methods reparameterized the constraints to solve reduced unconstrained SEMs. Method for computing the main matrix factorizations illustrate the basic principles to be adopted for solving SEMs on serial or parallel computer

Efficient strategies for deriving the subset VAR models

Abstract.: Algorithms for computing the subset Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models are proposed. These algorithms can be used to choose a subset of the most statistically-significant variables of a VAR model. In such cases, the selection criteria are based on the residual sum of squares or the estimated residual covariance matrix. The VAR model with zero coefficient restrictions is formulated as a Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) model. Furthermore, the SUR model is transformed into one of smaller size, where the exogenous matrices comprise columns of a triangular matrix. Efficient algorithms which exploit the common columns of the exogenous matrices, sparse structure of the variance-covariance of the disturbances and special properties of the SUR models are investigated. The main computational tool of the selection strategies is the generalized QR decomposition and its modificatio

A recursive three-stage least squares method for large-scale systems of simultaneous equations

A new numerical method is proposed that uses the QR decomposition (and its variants) to derive recursively the three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator of large-scale simultaneous equations models (SEM). The 3SLS estimator is obtained sequentially, once the underlying model is modified, by adding or deleting rows of data. A new theoretical pseudo SEM is developed which has a non positive definite dispersion matrix and is proved to yield the 3SLS estimator that would be derived if the modified SEM was estimated afresh. In addition, the computation of the iterative 3SLS estimator of the updated observations SEM is considered. The new recursive method utilizes efficiently previous computations, exploits sparsity in the pseudo SEM and uses as main computational tool orthogonal and hyperbolic matrix factorizations. This allows the estimation of large-scale SEMs which previously could have been considered computationally infeasible to tackle. Numerical trials have confirmed the effectiveness of the new estimation procedures. The new method is illustrated through a macroeconomic application

Estimating large-scale general linear and seemingly unrelated regressions models after deleting observations

A new numerical method to solve the downdating problem (and variants thereof), namely removing the effect of some observations from the generalized least squares (GLS) estimator of the general linear model (GLM) after it has been estimated, is extensively investigated. It is verified that the solution of the downdated least squares problem can be obtained from the estimation of an equivalent GLM, where the original model is updated with the imaginary deleted observations. This updated GLM has a non positive definite dispersion matrix which comprises complex covariance values and it is proved herein to yield the same normal equations as the downdated model. Additionally, the problem of deleting observations from the seemingly unrelated regressions model is addressed, demonstrating the direct applicability of this method to other multivariate linear models. The algorithms which implement the novel downdating method utilize efficiently the previous computations from the estimation of the original model. As a result, the computational cost is significantly reduced. This shows the great usability potential of the downdating method in computationally intensive problems. The downdating algorithms have been applied to real and synthetic data to illustrate their efficiency

Algorithms for Computing the QR Decomposition of a Set of Matrices with Common Columns

The QR decomposition of a set of matrices which have common columns is investigated. The triangular factors of the QR decompositions are represented as nodes of a weighted directed graph. An edge between two nodes exists if and only if the columns of one of the matrices is a subset of the columns of the other. The weight of an edge denotes the computational complexity of deriving the triangular factor of the destination node from that of the source node. The problem is equivalent to constructing the graph and finding the minimum cost for visiting all the nodes. An algorithm which computes the QR decompositions by deriving the minimum spanning tree of the graph is proposed. Theoretical measures of complexity are derived and numerical results from the implementation of this and alternative heuristic algorithms are give