Time-Series Modeling and Decomposition

Read this article. It provides an overview of techniques associated with decomposition. Part 4, The Business Cycle, presents how this tool is applied in business operations. Why do you think decomposition is useful in understanding seasonality costs?

THE TRADING-DAY COMPONENT

Models for Trading-Day Variations

A frequently applied deterministic model for trading-day variations was developed by Young,

y_{t}=D_{t}+u_{t}, t=1,, \ldots, n,                                                       (22.a)

D_{t}=\sum_{j=1}^{7} \alpha_{j} N_{j t}                                                                        (22.b)

where u_{t} \sim W N\left(0, \sigma_{u}^{2}\right), \Sigma_{j=1}^{7} \alpha_{j}=0, \alpha_{j}, j=1, \ldots, 7 denote the effects of the seven days of the week, Monday to Sunday, and N_{j t} is the number of times day j is present in month t. Hence, the length of the month is N_{t}=\sum_{j=1}^{7} N_{j t}, and the cumulative monthly effect is given by (22.b). Adding and subtracting \bar{\alpha}=\left(\sum_{j=1}^{7} \alpha_{j}\right) / 7 to Eq. (22.b) yields

D_{t}=\bar{\alpha} N_{t}+\sum_{j=1}^{7}\left(\alpha_{j}-\bar{\alpha}\right) N_{j t}.                                               (23)

Hence, the cumulative effect is given by the length of the month plus the net effect due to the days of the week. Since \Sigma_{j=1}^{7}\left(\alpha_{j}-\bar{\alpha}\right)=0, model (23) takes into account the effect of the days present five times in the month. Model (23) can then be written as

D_{t}=\bar{\alpha} N_{t}+\Sigma_{j=1}^{6}\left(\alpha_{j}-\bar{\alpha}\right)\left(N_{j t}-N_{7 t}\right),                                 (24)

with the effect of Sunday being \alpha_{7}=-\sum_{j=1}^{6} \alpha_{j}.

Deterministic models for trading-day variations assume that the daily activity coefficients are constant over the whole range of the series. Stochastic model for trading-day variations have been rarely proposed. Dagum et al. developed a model where the daily coefficients change over time according to a stochastic difference equation.