# Vector Error Correction Model (VECM): Applications In Finance¶

## Introduction¶

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From Wikipedia:

The Engle–Granger approach as described above suffers from a number of weaknesses. Namely it is restricted to only a single equation with one variable designated as the dependent variable, explained by another variable that is assumed to be weakly exogeneous for the parameters of interest. It also relies on pretesting the time series to find out whether variables are I(0) or I(1). These weaknesses can be addressed through the use of Johansen's procedure. Its advantages include that pretesting is not necessary, there can be numerous cointegrating relationships, all variables are treated as endogenous and tests relating to the long-run parameters are possible.

VECM models add error correction terms to the vector autoregression (VAR) model. Using simple matrix algebra, the model can be written as follows:

$$\,\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\Delta {y_{1,t}}}\\ {\Delta {y_{2t}}} \end{array}} \right] = \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\gamma _{01}}}\\ {{\gamma _{02}}} \end{array}} \right] + \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\alpha _1}}\\ {{\alpha _2}} \end{array}} \right]\left[ {{\beta _0}\,\,\,{\beta _1}\,\,\,{\beta _2}} \right]\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} 1\\ {{y_{1,t - 1}}}\\ {{y_{2,t - 1}}} \end{array}} \right] + \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\gamma _{11}}}&{{\gamma _{21}}}\\ {{\gamma _{12}}}&{{\gamma _{22}}} \end{array}} \right]\,\,\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\Delta {y_{1,t - 1}}}\\ {\Delta {y_{2,t - 1}}} \end{array}} \right] + \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\gamma _{31}}}&{{\gamma _{41}}}\\ {{\gamma _{32}}}&{{\gamma _{42}}} \end{array}} \right]\,\,\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\Delta {y_{1,t - 2}}}\\ {\Delta {y_{2,t - 2}}} \end{array}} \right] + \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\nu _{1,t}}}\\ {{\nu _{2,t}}} \end{array}} \right]$$

Following this excellent blog post I will choose $y_1$ and $y_2$ to be the following time series:

• SPY (the S&P 500 exchange traded fund)
• SHY (iShares 1-3 year Treasury Bond) prices.

If both series are cointegrated, this information must included in the model. This is done introducing, as mentioned above, error correction terms:

$${\alpha _i}({\beta _0}\, + {\beta _1}{y_{1,t - 1}}\, + {\beta _2}{y_{2,t - 1}}),\,\,\,\,\,i = 1,2$$

where

$$({\beta _0}\, + {\beta _1}{y_{1,t - 1}}\, + {\beta _2}{y_{2,t - 1}}),\,\,\,\,\,i = 1,2$$

corresponds to the long-run. If in the long-run the last equation is zero we have the folowing relation:

$$\,{y_{2,t - 1}} = - ({\beta _0}/{\beta _2})\, - ({\beta _1}/{\beta _2}){y_{1,t - 1}}$$

Hence, the $\beta$s we obtain after fitting the VECM inform us about the equilibrium relationship between the time series. When the two series deviate from equilibrium, the $\alpha$s "push them back".

## Installing Packages¶

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In [3]:
# install.packages('ggplot2')
# install.packages('xts')
# install.packages('quantmod')
# install.packages('broom')
# install.packages('tseries')
# install.packages("kableExtra")
# install.packages("knitr")
# install.packages("vars")
# install.packages("urca")


To load the data we will use the library quantmod which contains the function getSymbols. From the documents

getSymbols is a wrapper to load data from various sources, local or remote.

In our case we will load data from Yahoo Finance.

In [49]:
rm(list=ls())
library(tseries)
library(dynlm)
library(vars)
library(nlWaldTest)
library(lmtest)
library(broom)
library(car)
library(sandwich)
library(knitr)
library(forecast)

In [53]:
library(quantmod)
setSymbolLookup(SHY='yahoo',SPY='yahoo')
getSymbols(c('SHY','SPY'))

1. 'SHY'
2. 'SPY'

Defining y1 and y2 as the adjusted prices and joining them:

In [54]:
y1 <- SPY$SPY.Adjusted y2 <- SHY$SHY.Adjusted
time_series <- cbind(y1, y2)
print('Our dataframe is:')
colnames(time_series) <- c('SHY', 'SPY')

[1] "Our dataframe is:"

                SHY      SPY
2007-01-03 111.6693 68.01018
2007-01-04 111.9062 68.07811
2007-01-05 111.0136 68.03567
2007-01-08 111.5271 67.99307
2007-01-09 111.4323 68.01858
2007-01-10 111.8035 68.00159

## Stationarity¶

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We can check for stationary of the series individually:

In [58]:
adf.test(time_series$SHY) adf.test(time_series$SPY)

	Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test

data:  time_series$SHY Dickey-Fuller = -1.5363, Lag order = 14, p-value = 0.7747 alternative hypothesis: stationary   Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test data: time_series$SPY
Dickey-Fuller = -3.7478, Lag order = 14, p-value = 0.02158
alternative hypothesis: stationary

In [57]:
print('p-values:')
adf.test(time_series$SHY)$p.value
adf.test(time_series$SPY)$p.value

[1] "p-values:"

0.774665887814869
0.0215848302364735
In [46]:
par(mfrow = c(2,1))
plot.ts(time_series$SHY, type='l') plot.ts(time_series$SPY,
type='l')


## Johansen Test for Cointegration¶

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The most well known cointegration test is the Johansen test which estimates the VECM parameters and determines whether the determinant of

$$\alpha \beta = \left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\alpha _1}}\\ {{\alpha _2}} \end{array}} \right]\left[ {{\beta _0}\,\,\,{\beta _1}\,\,\,{\beta _2}} \right]$$

is zero or not. If $\alpha \beta\neq 0$, the series are cointegrated.

In [31]:
library(urca)

In [32]:
johansentest <- ca.jo(time_series, type = "trace", ecdet = "const", K = 3)
summary(johansentest)

######################
# Johansen-Procedure #
######################

Test type: trace statistic , without linear trend and constant in cointegration

Eigenvalues (lambda):
[1] 2.248927e-02 3.620157e-03 4.437196e-18

Values of teststatistic and critical values of test:

test 10pct  5pct  1pct
r <= 1 | 10.65  7.52  9.24 12.97
r = 0  | 77.46 17.85 19.96 24.60

Eigenvectors, normalised to first column:
(These are the cointegration relations)

SHY.l3      SPY.l3  constant
SHY.l3      1.00000      1.0000   1.00000
SPY.l3    -84.59851    163.3147  -8.78908
constant 6927.78683 -12622.5372 543.67420

Weights W:

SHY.l3        SPY.l3      constant
SHY.d 2.147229e-05  1.049741e-04 -1.531138e-17
SPY.d 2.088562e-05 -1.870590e-06  1.148836e-17


The lines $r=0$ and $r\le 1$ are the results of the test. More specifically:

• line $r=0$: these are the results of the hypothesis test with null hypothesis $r=0$. More concretely, this test checks if the matrix has zero rank. In the present case the hypothesis is rejected since the test variable is well above the $1\%$ value;
• line $r\le 1$: these are the results of the hypothesis test $r\le 1$. Now since the test value is below the $1\%$ value value we fail to reject the null hypothesis. Hence we conclude that the rank of $\alpha \beta$ is 1 and therefore the two series are cointegrated and we can use the VECM model.

Note that if hypotheses were reject we would have $r=2$ corresponding to two stationary series.

## Fitting the VECM¶

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In [37]:
t <- cajorls(johansentest, r = 1)
t

$rlm Call: lm(formula = substitute(form1), data = data.mat) Coefficients: SHY.d SPY.d ect1 2.147e-05 2.089e-05 SHY.dl1 -4.754e-02 6.806e-04 SPY.dl1 5.658e-01 -1.192e-01 SHY.dl2 -6.092e-02 4.440e-04 SPY.dl2 3.243e-02 -6.055e-02$beta
ect1
SHY.l3      1.00000
SPY.l3    -84.59851
constant 6927.78683


The $\beta$ coefficients are given above. The $\gamma$ coefficients are above the $beta$s in the output.