Recursive online EM estimation of mixture autoregressions

Abstract

This paper develops a recursive expectation–maximization (REM) algorithm for estimating a mixture autoregression (MAR) with an independent and identically distributed regime transition process. The proposed method, which is useful for long time series as well as for data available in real time, follows a recursive predictor error-type scheme. Based on a slightly modified system to the expectation–maximization (EM) equations for an MAR model, the REM algorithm consists of two steps at each iteration: the expectation step, in which the current unobserved regime transition is estimated from new data using previous recursive estimates, and the minimization step, in which the MAR parameter estimates are recursively updated following a minimization direction. Details of implementation of the REM algorithm are given and its finite-sample performance is shown via simulation experiments. In particular, the EM and REM provide roughly similar estimates, especially for moderate and long time series.