A comparison of mean squared error approximations for a small estimated state space model*

Summary: This paper investigates mean squared errors for unobserved states in state space models when estimation uncertainty of hyperparameters is taken into account. Three alternative approximations to mean squared errors with estimation uncertainty are compared in a Monte Carlo experiment, where the random walk with noise model serves as DGP: A naive method which neglects estimation uncertainty completely, an approximation based on an expansion around the true state with respect to the estimatedparameters, and a bootstrap approach. Overall, the bootstrap method performs best in the simulations. However, the gains are not systematic, and the computationally burden of this method is relatively high.*This paper represents the authors personal opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Deutsche Bundesbank. I am grateful to Malte Knüppel, Jeong-Ryeol Kurz-Kim, Karl-Heinz Tödter and a referee for helpful comments. The computer programs for this paper were written in Ox and SsfPack, see Doornik (1998) and Koopman et al. (1999). The used SsfPack version is 2.2.