As I am probably wasting a lot of time when estimating my models, may I quickly ask you the following question (I already tried to solve it by browsing/searching the forum): I do not fully understand when I am allowed to provide an already existing mode (via mod_file=xxx and mode_compute=0) and when I have to restart the mode optimisation.
Assuming that I have already estimated my model once and successfully obtained the posterior mode. Now I want to make some changes to my model/estimation and then re-run the estimation. Here, I am not sure which changes to my model forces me to also re-do the mode optimisation and which changes allow me to use the existing mode (and thus speed up my estimation).
Estimating a model the following list of changes are possible:
-
Changes to the model equation:
a) either just change some calibrated parameters without changing the structure of the model or
b) add/remove equations and thus variables (this might also affect the list of observables) -
Changes to the priors:
a) either just change some existing priors
b) add a new prior/remove an existing prior as I want to estimate more/less parameters -
Changes to the observables:
add/remove some data and thus add/remove observables in the estimation
My guess would be that:
- when doing 1a) and 2a) I should be able to use an existing mode in the estimation.
- Doing 3) forces me to re-do the mode optimisation.
- unsure what to do with 1b) and 2b)
I will be very grateful if you can help me out with this (and speed up my future estimations).