🌍 Week 11 Homework — Feedback

Student: Giovanni Rampello Assignment: VAR Estimation and Identification

✅ Overall Assessment

Result: ✅ Pass

Very good submission. The code correctly implements the VAR(1) model, identifies the structural shocks, and produces clear Impulse Response Functions.

🔍 Task-by-Task Check

Task Description Status Notes
1.1 Data Loading & Cleanup ✅ Correctly loads and handles data
1.2 Data Transformation ✅ Correctly computes annualized growth rates
1.3 Construct Data Matrices ✅ Correct setup of LHS and RHS matrices
1.4 OLS Estimation ✅ Correct equation-by-equation OLS
1.5 Extract A1 Matrix ✅ Correct extraction of A1
1.6 Residuals & Sigma ✅ Correct covariance calculation
1.7 Identification (Cholesky) ✅ Correct Cholesky decomposition
1.8 Compute IRFs ✅ Correct loop for IRF generation
1.9 Plot IRFs ✅ Generates both 3x3 grid and focused plots
1.10 Save Figures ✅ Saves figures correctly

📈 Technical Implementation

  • Implementation: The manual implementation of the OLS and IRF loop is correct.
  • Verification: Includes a stability check (eigenvalues of A1), which is good practice.

💬 Style & Clarity

  • Comments: Code is adequately commented.
  • Structure: Clear separation of tasks.

📊 Visual Output Assessment

  • Plots: The generated plots are clear and follow the requirements.
  • Organization: Producing both a summary 3x3 plot and a specific monetary policy plot is helpful.

✅ Suggestions for Improvement

  1. Looping: The plotting code for the 3x3 grid is a bit repetitive (manual subplots). Using loops would make it more concise.

🎯 Summary

Solid work. The submission demonstrates a good understanding of the VAR estimation and identification process.

Grade Level: ✅ Pass (10/10 tasks correct)