EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-19DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020022
D. Qin, Sophie van Huellen, Qing Chao Wang, Thanos Moraitis
{"title":"Algorithmic Modelling of Financial Conditions for Macro Predictive Purposes: Pilot Application to USA Data","authors":"D. Qin, Sophie van Huellen, Qing Chao Wang, Thanos Moraitis","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020022","url":null,"abstract":"Aggregate financial conditions indices (FCIs) are constructed to fulfil two aims: (i) The FCIs should resemble non-model-based composite indices in that their composition is adequately invariant for concatenation during regular updates; (ii) the concatenated FCIs should outperform financial variables conventionally used as leading indicators in macro models. Both aims are shown to be attainable once an algorithmic modelling route is adopted to combine leading indicator modelling with the principles of partial least-squares (PLS) modelling, supervised dimensionality reduction, and backward dynamic selection. Pilot results using US data confirm the traditional wisdom that financial imbalances are more likely to induce macro impacts than routine market volatilities. They also shed light on why the popular route of principal-component based factor analysis is ill-suited for the two aims.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43597102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-13DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020021
R. Mosconi, P. Paruolo
{"title":"A Conversation with Søren Johansen","authors":"R. Mosconi, P. Paruolo","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020021","url":null,"abstract":"This article was prepared for the Special Issue “Celebrated Econometricians: Katarina Juselius and Søren Johansen” of Econometrics. It is based on material recorded on 30 October 2018 in Copenhagen. It explores Søren Johansen’s research, and discusses inter alia the following issues: estimation and inference for nonstationary time series of the I(1), I(2) and fractional cointegration types; survival analysis; statistical modelling; likelihood; econometric methodology; the teaching and practice of Statistics and Econometrics.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41612817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-13DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020020
R. Mosconi, P. Paruolo
{"title":"A Conversation with Katarina Juselius","authors":"R. Mosconi, P. Paruolo","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020020","url":null,"abstract":"This article was prepared for the Special Issue ‘Celebrated Econometricians: Katarina Juselius and Søren Johansen’ of Econometrics. It is based on material recorded on 30–31 October 2018 in Copenhagen. It explores Katarina Juselius’ research, and discusses inter alia the following issues: equilibrium; short and long-run behaviour; common trends; adjustment; integral and proportional control mechanisms; model building and model comparison; breaks, crisis, learning; univariate versus multivariate modelling; mentoring and the gender gap in Econometrics.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43747416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-09DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020018
Gaetano Perone
{"title":"Using the SARIMA Model to Forecast the Fourth Global Wave of Cumulative Deaths from COVID-19: Evidence from 12 Hard-Hit Big Countries","authors":"Gaetano Perone","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020018","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious threat to all of us. It has caused an unprecedented shock to the world’s economy, and it has interrupted the lives and livelihood of millions of people. In the last two years, a large body of literature has attempted to forecast the main dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak using a wide set of models. In this paper, I forecast the short- to mid-term cumulative deaths from COVID-19 in 12 hard-hit big countries around the world as of 20 August 2021. The data used in the analysis were extracted from the Our World in Data COVID-19 dataset. Both non-seasonal and seasonal autoregressive integrated moving averages (ARIMA and SARIMA) were estimated. The analysis showed that: (i) ARIMA/SARIMA forecasts were sufficiently accurate in both the training and test set by always outperforming the simple alternative forecasting techniques chosen as benchmarks (Mean, Naïve, and Seasonal Naïve); (ii) SARIMA models outperformed ARIMA models in 47 out 48 metrics (in forecasting future values), i.e., on 97.9% of all the considered forecast accuracy measures (mean absolute error [MAE], mean absolute percentage error [MAPE], mean absolute scaled error [MASE], and the root mean squared error [RMSE]), suggesting a clear seasonal pattern in the data; and (iii) the forecasted values from SARIMA models fitted very well the observed (real-time) data for the period 21 August 2021–19 September 2021 for almost all the countries analyzed. This article shows that SARIMA can be safely used for both the short- and medium-term predictions of COVID-19 deaths. Thus, this approach can help government authorities to monitor and manage the huge pressure that COVID-19 is exerting on national healthcare systems.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42378091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-07DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020017
Niraj Poudyal, A. Spanos
{"title":"Model Validation and DSGE Modeling","authors":"Niraj Poudyal, A. Spanos","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020017","url":null,"abstract":"The primary objective of this paper is to revisit DSGE models with a view to bringing out their key weaknesses, including statistical misspecification, non-identification of deep parameters, substantive inadequacy, weak forecasting performance, and potentially misleading policy analysis. It is argued that most of these weaknesses stem from failing to distinguish between statistical and substantive adequacy and secure the former before assessing the latter. The paper untangles the statistical from the substantive premises of inference to delineate the above-mentioned issues and propose solutions. The discussion revolves around a typical DSGE model using US quarterly data. It is shown that this model is statistically misspecified, and when respecified to arrive at a statistically adequate model gives rise to the Student’s t VAR model. This statistical model is shown to (i) provide a sound basis for testing the DSGE overidentifying restrictions as well as probing the identifiability of the deep parameters, (ii) suggest ways to meliorate its substantive inadequacy, and (iii) give rise to reliable forecasts and policy simulations.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49139828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-04-06DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020016
K. Juselius
{"title":"A Theory-Consistent CVAR Scenario for a Monetary Model with Forward-Looking Expectations","authors":"K. Juselius","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020016","url":null,"abstract":"A theory-consistent CVAR scenario describes a set of testable regularities capturing basic assumptions of the theoretical model. Using this concept, the paper considers a standard model for exchange rate determination with forward-looking expectations and shows that all assumptions about the model’s shock structure and steady-state behavior can be formulated as testable hypotheses on common stochastic trends and cointegration. The basic stationarity assumptions of the monetary model failed to obtain empirical support. They were too restrictive to explain the observed long persistent swings in the real exchange rate, the real interest rates, and the inflation and interest rate differentials.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45434743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-03-25DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020015
Piero C. Kauffmann, H. H. Takada, Ana T. Terada, Julio Michael Stern
{"title":"Learning Forecast-Efficient Yield Curve Factor Decompositions with Neural Networks","authors":"Piero C. Kauffmann, H. H. Takada, Ana T. Terada, Julio Michael Stern","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020015","url":null,"abstract":"Most factor-based forecasting models for the term structure of interest rates depend on a fixed number of factor loading functions that have to be specified in advance. In this study, we relax this assumption by building a yield curve forecasting model that learns new factor decompositions directly from data for an arbitrary number of factors, combining a Gaussian linear state-space model with a neural network that generates smooth yield curve factor loadings. In order to control the model complexity, we define prior distributions with a shrinkage effect over the model parameters, and we present how to obtain computationally efficient maximum a posteriori numerical estimates using the Kalman filter and automatic differentiation. An evaluation of the model’s performance on 14 years of historical data of the Brazilian yield curve shows that the proposed technique was able to obtain better overall out-of-sample forecasts than traditional approaches, such as the dynamic Nelson and Siegel model and its extensions.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41991050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-03-23DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10020013
Jorge González Chapela
{"title":"A Binary Choice Model with Sample Selection and Covariate-Related Misclassification","authors":"Jorge González Chapela","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10020013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10020013","url":null,"abstract":"Misclassification of a binary response variable and nonrandom sample selection are data issues frequently encountered by empirical researchers. For cases in which both issues feature simultaneously in a data set, we formulate a sample selection model for a misclassified binary outcome in which the conditional probabilities of misclassification are allowed to depend on covariates. Assuming the availability of validation data, the pseudo-maximum likelihood technique can be used to estimate the model. The performance of the estimator accounting for misclassification and sample selection is compared to that of estimators offering partial corrections. An empirical example illustrates the proposed framework.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":"27 16","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-03-16DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10010012
Yiannis Karavias, Elias Tzavalis, Haotian Zhang
{"title":"Missing Values in Panel Data Unit Root Tests","authors":"Yiannis Karavias, Elias Tzavalis, Haotian Zhang","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10010012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10010012","url":null,"abstract":"Missing data or missing values are a common phenomenon in applied panel data research and of great interest for panel data unit root testing. The standard approach in the literature is to balance the panel by removing units and/or trimming a common time period for all units. However, this approach can be costly in terms of lost information. Instead, existing panel unit root tests could be extended to the case of unbalanced panels, but this is often difficult because the missing observations affect the bias correction which is usually involved. This paper contributes to the literature in two ways; it extends two popular panel unit root tests to allow for missing values, and secondly, it employs asymptotic local power functions to analytically study the impact of various missing-value methods on power. We find that zeroing-out the missing observations is the method that results in the greater test power, and that this result holds for all deterministic component specifications, such as intercepts, trends and structural breaks.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44281932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconometricsPub Date : 2022-03-02DOI: 10.3390/econometrics10010011
Andreas Lichtenberger, Joao Paulo Braga, W. Semmler
{"title":"Green Bonds for the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy","authors":"Andreas Lichtenberger, Joao Paulo Braga, W. Semmler","doi":"10.3390/econometrics10010011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics10010011","url":null,"abstract":"The green bond market is emerging as an impactful financing mechanism in climate change mitigation efforts. The effectiveness of the financial market for this transition to a low-carbon economy depends on attracting investors and removing financial market roadblocks. This paper investigates the differential bond performance of green vs non-green bonds with (1) a dynamic portfolio model that integrates negative as well as positive externality effects and via (2) econometric analyses of aggregate green bond and corporate energy time-series indices; as well as a cross-sectional set of individual bonds issued between 1 January 2017, and 1 October 2020. The asset pricing model demonstrates that, in the long-run, the positive externalities of green bonds benefit the economy through positive social returns. We use a deterministic and a stochastic version of the dynamic portfolio approach to obtain model-driven results and evaluate those through our empirical evidence using harmonic estimations. The econometric analysis of this study focuses on volatility and the risk–return performance (Sharpe ratio) of green and non-green bonds, and extends recent econometric studies that focused on yield differentials of green and non-green bonds. A modified Sharpe ratio analysis, cross-sectional methods, harmonic estimations, bond pairing estimations, as well as regression tree methodology, indicate that green bonds tend to show lower volatility and deliver superior Sharpe ratios (while the evidence for green premia is mixed). As a result, green bond investment can protect investors and portfolios from oil price and business cycle fluctuations, and stabilize portfolio returns and volatility. Policymakers are encouraged to make use of the financial benefits of green instruments and increase the financial flows towards sustainable economic activities to accelerate a low-carbon transition.","PeriodicalId":11499,"journal":{"name":"Econometrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41539233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}