Markov Switching

Abstract

Markov switching models are a family of models that introduces time variation in the parameters in the form of their state, or regime-specific values. This time variation is governed by a latent discrete-valued stochastic process with limited memory. More specifically, the current value of the state indicator is determined by the value of the state indicator from the previous period only implying the Markov property. A transition matrix characterizes the properties of the Markov process by determining with what probability each of the states can be visited next period conditionally on the state in the current period. This setup decides on the two main advantages of the Markov switching model..