Restar of MH algorithm from the point of interruption

Suppose computer was accidentally shut down during MH algorithm. The hard drive contains several _mh_blck*.mat files. Is it possible to start from the point close to the point of interruption? Or do I need to start from the beginning?

I appreciate there is load_mh_file command, but I cannot find the proper usage of this command. If I write
estimation(datafile=nameq,lik_init=2,nobs=n1,mode_compute=0,mode_file=name_mode,load_mh_fil, mh_replic= 150000,mh_scale=0.35,bayesian_irf,irf=100)

it complains that *_mh14_blck2 does not exist. It does not exist, indeed, as I have fewer files than needed to complete. It crashed on *_mh5_blck2

Is it possible to start from what what exists?

PS. I run Dynare 3.064, but I suspect this would not matter.

Many thanks

Dear Tanya, You have to use option mh_recover instead of load_mh_file. For obvious safety reasons, you should make a copy of your mh_files before trying this option, I am not certain it works correctly with dynare 3.xxx).
Best, Stéphane.

I did try this, but it did not recognise the command. As no help for version 3 is available any more, I cannot check.

On a different note, can I ask if there is any hope that you will make Dynare 4,5,… to call external functions with MULTIPLE variables output? I am kinda waiting (this is the reason I use Dynare 3), if there is no hope, I will try to invest into something different…

I can’t remember when we added the keyword mh_recover. But I am sure there was a recover mode with dynare 3. Maybe you can try to add

options_.mh_recover = 1;

before the estimation command.

It’s possible (not convenient) to use n external functions instead of one external function returning n arguments. The first external function calls a function that put the n variables to be computed in globals (or in a global structure) and each external function returns one of the global variables (or one field of the global structure). It’s not very nice…

I don’t use external functions and prefer to compute what I need in the steady state file (the steady state file is called before the *_dynamic.m file evaluation). External variables are only needed if you consider functions of the endogenous variables.

Best, Stéphane.

Note that, using the current unstable version of Dynare, you can already use functions with multiple return arguments by using a small trick: just create wrapper functions that call your original function and return the desired argument. You need to create as many such functions as you have return arguments.

I know this is only a workaround, but it should work fine and do what you want.

I’m not sure that we will implement the syntax that you want, because it may imply too many changes: could you give an example of the syntax that you would like to have in Dynare 4 ?