Overview
Thomas Doan is an economist who co-authored the foundational Bayesian VAR forecasting paper with Robert Litterman and Christopher Sims (1984) while at Northwestern University. He subsequently developed RATS (Regression Analysis of Time Series), a widely used econometric software package for time series analysis that became the standard implementation platform for BVAR models in academic and applied research.
Key Contributions / Features
- Doan-Litterman-Sims (1984) — Co-developed the Minnesota prior Bayesian VAR forecasting system and the conditional projection method. See Doan-Litterman-Sims (1984) and Minnesota Prior.
- RATS software (Doan 1992) — Regression Analysis of Time Series; econometric software package that implements BVAR estimation, conditional projections, and a wide range of time series methods; became the default platform for replicating Minnesota prior results in applied work.
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