MODELING STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN FRENCH BEEF, POULTRY, AND FISH DEMAND: A MARKOV SWITCHING AIDS MODEL

Structural change in the French demand of beef, poultry and fish is originally investigated. Rather than applying the traditional switching AIDS (S-AIDS) model, we reconsider the analysis of structural change through the Markov switching AIDS (MS-AIDS). The main feature of this model is that the switching mechanism is controlled by an unobserved variable that follows a Markov chain. As such, it captures more complex dynamic patterns than does the S-AIDS model. The MS-AIDS and the S-AIDS are compared to determine which model provides the better explanation of beef, poultry, and fish dynamic demand. We find that a MS-AIDS displaying habit formation detects the two mad cow crises in 1996 and 2000 and may identify the structural changes emanating from nutritional recommendations.