On the Performances of Classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR Models in the Presence of Collinearity and Autocorrelated Error Terms

In time series literature, many authors have found out that multicollinearity and autocorrelation usually afflict time series data. In this paper, we compare the performances of classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR models with quadratic decay on bivariate time series data jointly influenced by collinearity and autocorrelation. We simulate bivariate time series data for different collinearity levels (﹣0.99, ﹣0.95, ﹣0.9, ﹣0.85, ﹣0.8, 0.8, 0.85, 0.9, 0.95, 0.99) and autocorrelation levels (﹣0.99, ﹣0.95, ﹣0.9, ﹣0.85, ﹣0.8, 0.8, 0.85, 0.9, 0.95, 0.99) for time series length of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 respectively. The results from 10,000 simulations reveal that the models performance varies with the collinearity and autocorrelation levels, and with the time series lengths. In addition, the results reveal that the BVAR4 model is a viable model for forecasting. Therefore, we recommend that the levels of collinearity and autocorrelation, and the time series length should be considered in using an appropriate model for forecasting.

Short Term Forecasting Performances of Classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR Models for Time Series with Collinear Variables and Correlated Error Terms

Forecasts can either be short term, medium term or long term. In this work we considered short term forecast because of the problem of limited data or time series data that is often encounter in time series analysis. This simulation study considered the performances of the classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR for short term series at different levels of collinearity and correlated error terms. The results from 10,000 iteration revealed that the BVAR models are excellent for time series length of T=8 for all levels of collinearity while the classical VAR is effective for time series length of T=16 for all collinearity levels except when ρ = -0.9 and ρ = -0.95. We therefore recommended that for effective short term forecasting, the time series length, forecasting horizon and the collinearity level should be considered.

A Simulation Study on the Performances of Classical Var and Sims-Zha Bayesian Var Models in the Presence of Autocorrelated Errors

It is well known that a high degree of positive dependency among the errors generally leads to 1) serious underestimation of standard errors for regression coefficients;2) prediction intervals that are excessively wide. This paper set out to study the performances of classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR models in the presence of autocorrelated errors. Autocorrelation levels of (-0.99, -0.95, -0.9, -0.85, -0.8, 0.8, 0.85, 0.9, 0.95, 0.99) were considered for short term (T = 8, 16);medium term (T = 32, 64) and long term (T = 128, 256). The results from 10,000 simulation revealed that BVAR model with loose prior is suitable for negative autocorrelations and BVAR model with tight prior is suitable for positive autocorrelations in the short term. While for medium term, the BVAR model with loose prior is suitable for the autocorrelation levels considered except in few cases. Lastly, for long term, the classical VAR is suitable for all the autocorrelation levels considered except in some cases where the BVAR models are preferred. This work therefore concludes that the performance of the classical VAR and Sims-Zha Bayesian VAR varies in terms of the autocorrelation levels and the time series lengths.