The novel circumstance-driven bivariate integer-valued autoregressive (CuBINAR) model for non-stationary count time series is proposed. The non-stationarity of the bivariate count process is defined by a joint categorical sequence, which expresses the current state of the process. Additional cross-dependence can be generated via cross-dependent innovations. The model can also be equipped with a marginal bivariate Poisson distribution to make it suitable for low-count time series. Important stochastic properties of the new model are derived. The Yule-Walker and conditional maximum likelihood method are adopted to estimate the unknown parameters. The consistency of these estimators is established, and their finite-sample performance is investigated by a simulation study. The scope and application of the model are illustrated by a real-world data example on sales counts, where a soap product in different stores with a common circumstance factor is investigated.
Keywords: CuBINAR model; circumstance driven; non-stationarity.