Structural Vector Autoregressions with Markov Switching

It is argued that in structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) analysis a Markov regime switching (MS) property can be exploited to identify shocks if the reduced form error covariance matrix varies across regimes. The model setup is formulated and discussed and it is shown how it can be used to test restrictions which are just-identifying in a standard structural vector autoregressive analysis. The approach is illustrated by two SVAR examples which have been reported in the literature and which have features which can be accommodated by the MS structure.