Robust Estimation of High-Dimensional Vector Autoregressive Models

High dimensional non-Gaussian time series data are increasingly encountered in a wide range of applications. Conventional estimation methods and technical tools are inadequate when it comes to ultra high dimensional and heavy-tailed data. We investigate robust estimation of high dimensional autoregressive models with fat-tailed innovation vectors by solving a regularized regression problem using convex robust loss function. As a significant improvement, the dimension can be allowed to increase exponentially with the sample size to ensure consistency under very mild moment conditions. To develop the consistency theory, we establish a new Bernstein type inequality for the sum of autoregressive models. Numerical results indicate a good performance of robust estimates.