Asymptotics of Cointegration Tests for High-Dimensional VAR($k$)

The paper studies nonstationary high-dimensional vector autoregressions of order $k$, VAR($k$). Additional deterministic terms such as trend or seasonality are allowed. The number of time periods, $T$, and the number of coordinates, $N$, are assumed to be large and of the same order. Under this regime the first-order asymptotics of the Johansen likelihood ratio (LR), Pillai-Bartlett, and Hotelling-Lawley tests for cointegration are derived: the test statistics converge to nonrandom integrals. For more refined analysis, the paper proposes and analyzes a modification of the Johansen test. The new test for the absence of cointegration converges to the partial sum of the Airy$_1$ point process. Supporting Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the same behavior persists universally in many situations beyond those considered in our theorems. The paper presents empirical implementations of the approach for the analysis of S$\&$P$100$ stocks and of cryptocurrencies. The latter example has a strong presence of multiple cointegrating relationships, while the results for the former are consistent with the null of no cointegration.