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An Infinite Hidden Markov Model for Short-term Interest Rates

Author

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  • John M. Maheu

    (DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University and University of Toronto, Canada; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Italy)

  • Qiao Yang

    (Department of Economics, University of Toronto, Canada)

Abstract

The time-series dynamics of short-term interest rates are important as they are a key input into pricing models of the term structure of interest rates. In this paper we extend popular discrete time short-rate models to include Markov switching of infinite dimension. This is a Bayesian nonparametric model that allows for changes in the unknown conditional distribution over time. Applied to weekly U.S. data we find significant parameter change over time and strong evidence of non-Gaussian conditional distributions. Our new model with an hierarchical prior provides significant improvements in density forecasts as well as point forecasts. We find evidence of recurring regimes as well as structural breaks in the empirical application.

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Maheu & Qiao Yang, 2015. "An Infinite Hidden Markov Model for Short-term Interest Rates," Working Paper series 15-05, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:15-05
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    Cited by:

    1. Hou, Chenghan, 2017. "Infinite hidden markov switching VARs with application to macroeconomic forecast," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 1025-1043.
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      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    3. Luo, Jiawen & Ji, Qiang & Klein, Tony & Todorova, Neda & Zhang, Dayong, 2020. "On realized volatility of crude oil futures markets: Forecasting with exogenous predictors under structural breaks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Yang, Qiao, 2019. "Stock returns and real growth: A Bayesian nonparametric approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 53-69.
    5. Christian M. Dahl & Emma M. Iglesias, 2021. "Asymptotic normality of the MLE in the level-effect ARCH model," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 117-135, February.
    6. Yong Song & Tomasz Wo'zniak, 2020. "Markov Switching," Papers 2002.03598, arXiv.org.
    7. Luo, Jiawen & Klein, Tony & Ji, Qiang & Hou, Chenghan, 2022. "Forecasting realized volatility of agricultural commodity futures with infinite Hidden Markov HAR models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 51-73.
    8. Jia Liu & John M. Maheu, 2018. "Improving Markov switching models using realized variance," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 297-318, April.
    9. Li, Chenxing, 2022. "A multivariate GARCH model with an infinite hidden Markov mixture," MPRA Paper 112792, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Chenxing Li & John M. Maheu & Qiao Yang, 2024. "An infinite hidden Markov model with stochastic volatility," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2187-2211, September.
    11. Anandadeep Mandal & Sunil S. Poshakwale & Gabriel J. Power, 2021. "Do investors gain from forecasting the asymmetric return co‐movements of financial and real assets?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3246-3268, July.
    12. Jin, Xin & Maheu, John M. & Yang, Qiao, 2022. "Infinite Markov pooling of predictive distributions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 302-321.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics

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