Multidimensional dynamic factor models

Abstract

This paper generalises dynamic factor models for multidimensional dependent data. In doing so, it develops an interpretable technique to study complex information sources ranging from repeated surveys with a varying number of respondents to panels of satellite images. We specialise our results to model microeconomic data on US households jointly with macroeconomic aggregates. This results in a powerful tool able to generate localised predictions, counterfactuals and impulse response functions for individual households, accounting for traditional time-series complexities depicted in the statespace literature. The model is also compatible with the growing focus of policymakers for real-time economic analysis as it is able to process observations online, while handling missing values and asynchronous data releases.