We propose a conditional model of asset returns in the presence of common factors and downside risk. Specifically, we generalize existing latent factor models in three ways: we show how to estimate the threshold which identifies the 'disappointment' event triggering the bad state of the world; we...

This paper provides a simple, yet reliable, alternative to the (Bayesian) estimation of large multivariate VARs with time variation in the conditional mean equations and/or in the covariance structure. With our new methodology, the original multivariate, n-dimensional model is treated as a set...