Long Memory in Intrinsically Dynamic Factor Models

Abstract

We study the generalized dynamic factor model in a long-memory setting. Unlike most recent work, which assumes a finite-dimensional factor space and short memory, our framework allows the factor space to be infinite-dimensional and the common components to exhibit long memory. We employ the two-sided estimation method of Forni, Hallin, Lippi and Reichlin (2000, Review of Economics and Statistics) to recover the common component. The long memory structure of the common component poses a challenge, as it introduces unboundedness/discontinuity in the spectral density. We address this issue by leveraging two key facts: First, the estimated operator is a projection onto the leading eigenspace and thus the eigengap provides an intrinsic scaling that partially mitigates the blow-up. Second, we perform most of our estimation in $L^p$-norm, rather than pointwise. Experimental results are presented to provide evidence supporting the theory, as well as potential improvements to it.