Antti Ripatti

We extend the conventional cointegrated VAR model to allow for general nonlinear deterministic trends. These nonlinear trends can be used to model gradual structural changes in the intercept term of the cointegrating relations. A general asymptotic theory of estimation and statistical inference is reviewed and a diagnostic test for the correct specification of an employed nonlinear trend is developed. The methods are applied to Finnish interest-rate data. A smooth level shift of the logistic form between the own-yield of broad money and the short-term money market rate is found appropriate for these data. The level shift is motivated by the deregulation of issuing certificates of deposit and its inclusion in the model solves the puzzle of the “missing cointegration vector” found in a previous study.

This article develops test procedures for checking the validity of general normalizing restrictions imposed on cointegrating vectors in vector autoregressive processes. Such test procedures are of importance because normalizing restrictions, possibly combined with overidentifying restrictions, are often necessary for a proper interpretation of cointegrating vectors. The null hypothesis of our tests assumes that the employed normalization is valid or, alternatively, that certain linear combinations of the considered series are not cointegrated. The asymptotic distribution theory of these tests agrees with that of likelihood ratio tests for cointegration. The practical usefulness of the proposed tests is demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulation and an empirical application to interest-rate data.