A general procedure for change-point detection in multivariate time series

We consider the change-point detection in multivariate continuous and integer valued time series. We propose a Wald-type statistic based on the estimator performed by a general contrast function; which can be constructed from the likelihood, a quasi-likelihood, a least squares method, etc. Sufficient conditions are provided to ensure that the statistic convergences to a well-known distribution under the null hypothesis (of no change) and diverges to infinity under the alternative; which establishes the consistency of the procedure. Some examples are detailed to illustrate the scope of application of the proposed procedure. Simulation experiments are conducted to illustrate the asymptotic results.