Exact maximum likelihood estimation of partially nonstationary vector ARMA models

A useful class of partially nonstationary vector autoregressive moving average (VARMA) models is considered with regard to parameter estimation. An exact maximum likelihood (EML) approach is developed on the basis of a simple transformation applied to the error-correction representation of the models considered. The employed transformation is shown to provide a standard VARMA model with the important property that it is stationary. Parameter estimation can thus be carried out by applying standard EML methods to the stationary VARMA model obtained from the error-correction representation. This approach resolves at least two problems related to the current limited availability of EML estimation methods for partially nonstationary VARMA models. Firstly, it resolves the apparent impossibility of computing the exact log-likelihood for such models using currently available methods. And secondly, it resolves the inadequacy of considering lagged endogenous variables as exogenous variables in the error-correction representation. Theoretical discussion is followed by an example using a popular data set. The example illustrates the feasibility of the EML estimation approach as well as some of its potential benefits in cases of practical interest which are easy to come across. As in the case of stationary models, the proposed EML method provides estimated model structures that are more reliable and accurate than results produced by conditional methods.