Further results on the vecd operator and its applications

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the matrix vectorization operator termed the vecd operator, which has recently been introduced in the literature. This operator stacks up distinct elements of a symmetric matrix in a way that differs from that of the well-known vech operator; it stacks up not columns, but diagonals. We give further consideration to the vecd operator and related matrices, and derive their various useful properties. We provide some statistical applications of the vecd operator to illustrate its usefulness.     

On the relationship between the matrix operators,vech and vecd

We introduce a matrix operator, which we call “vecd” operator. This operator stacks up “diagonals” of a symmetric matrix. This operator is more convenient for some statistical analyses than the commonly used “vech” operator. We show an explicit relationship between the vecd and vech operators. Using this relationship, various properties of the vecd operator are derived. As applications of the vecd operator, we derive concise and explicit expressions of the Wald and score tests for equal variances of a multivariate normal distribution and for the diagonality of variance coefficient matrices in a multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH) model, respectively.