a b s t r a c tWe study the joint determination of the lag length, the dimension of the cointegrating space and the rank of the matrix of short-run parameters of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model using model selection criteria. We suggest a new two-step model selection procedure which is a hybrid of traditional criteria and criteria with data-dependant penalties and we prove its consistency. A Monte Carlo study explores the finite sample performance of this procedure and evaluates the forecasting accuracy of models selected by this procedure. Two empirical applications confirm the usefulness of the model selection procedure proposed here for forecasting.

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An important aspect of empirical research based on the vector autoregressive (VAR) model is the choice of the lag order, since all inferences in this model depend on the correct model speci…cation. There have been many studies on how to select the lag order of a nonstationary VAR model subject to cointegration restrictions. In this work, we consider an additional weak-form (WF) restriction of common cyclical features in the model to analyze the appropriate way to select the correct lag order. We use two methodologies: the traditional information criteria (AIC, HQ and SC) and an alternative criterion (IC(p; s)) that selects the lag order p and the rank structure s due to the WF restriction. We use a Monte Carlo simulation in the analysis. The results indicate that the cost of ignoring additional WF restrictions in vector autoregressive modeling can be high, especially when the SC criterion is used.

Lucas(1987) has shown the surprising result that the welfare cost of business cycles is quite small. Using standard assumptions on preferences and a fully-‡edged econometric model we computed the welfare costs of macroeconomic uncertainty for the post-WWII era using the multivariate Beveridge-Nelson decomposition for trends and cycles, which considers not only business-cycle uncertainty but also uncertainty from the stochastic trend in consumption. The post-WWII period is relatively quiet, with the welfare costs of uncertainty being about 0:9% of per-capita consumption. Although changing the decomposition method changed substantially initial results, the welfare cost of uncertainty is qualitatively small in the post-WWII era-We gratefully acknowledge the comments of