Sims, Christopher Albert (born 1942)

Abstract

Christopher Sims is one of the leaders in time-series econometrics and empirical macroeconomics and is well known for introducing the VAR approach to econometrics and macroeconomic modelling. Sims’ main contribution to empirical macroeconomics was to show how macro-econometric modeling should be revised so as to meet the Lucas Critique test. The VAR approach did not imply the abandoning of theory but only the involvement of theory that is ‘as light as possible.’ It shifted the focus from theoretical identification restrictions to identifying the main characteristics of the time series data, hence a shift of focus from theory to data.