Forward adaptive banding for estimating large covariance matrices

We propose a simple forward adaptive banding method for estimating large covariance matrices using the modified Cholesky decomposition. This approach requires the fitting of a prespecified set of models due to the adaptive banding structure and can be efficiently implemented. Aside from its computational attractiveness, we propose a novel Bayes information criterion that gives consistent model selection for estimating high dimensional covariance matrices. The method compares favourably to its competitors in simulation study. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.