{"title":"Improving Model-Based Near-Term GDP Forecasts by Subjective Forecasts: A Real-Time Exercise for the G7 Countries","authors":"W. Jansen, Jasper de Winter","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2746342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2746342","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate to what extent it is feasible to improve model-based near-term GDP forecasts by combining them with judgmental (quarterly) forecasts by professional analysts (Consensus survey) in a real-time setting. Our analysis covers the G7 countries over the years 1999-2013. We consider as combination schemes the weighted average and the linear combination. Incorporating subjective information delivers sizable gains in forecasting ability of statistical models for all countries except Japan in 1999-2013, even when subjective forecasts are somewhat dated. Accuracy gains are much more pronounced in the volatile period after 2008 due to a marked improvement in predictive power of Consensus forecasts. Since 2008, Consensus forecasts are superior at the moment of publication for most countries. For some countries Consensus forecasts can be enhanced by model-based forecasts in between the quarterly release dates of the Consensus survey, as the latter embody more recent monthly information.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133278929","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}
{"title":"What If Brazil Hadn't Floated the Real in 1999?","authors":"C. Carvalho, A. D. Vilela","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2746239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2746239","url":null,"abstract":"The English version of this paper can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2746239Portuguese Abstract: Estimamos um modelo dinâmico, estocastico, de equilibrio geral para a economia brasileira, levando em conta explicitamente a transicao do sistema de bandas cambiais para o regime de metas para a inflacao com câmbio flutuante, ocorrida em 1999. O modelo estimado produz dinâmicas bastante distintas sob os dois regimes monetarios. Construimos, entao, algumas historias contrafactuais da transicao entres os dois regimes, utilizando as series de choques estruturais estimados. Nossos resultados sugerem que a manutencao das bandas cambiais teria sido praticamente inviavel, na medida em que a taxa de juros teria que ter permanecido em niveis extremamente elevados por varios trimestres e a atividade economica teria contraido fortemente. Acelerar o ritmo de desvalorizacao da taxa de câmbio apos a Crise da Asia teria produzido taxas de inflacao e de juros maiores e atividade economica um pouco mais fraca. Por ultimo, o modelo sugere que o primeiro semestre de 1998 pode ter oferecido uma janela de oportunidade para uma transicao suave entre os dois regimes monetarios.English Abstract: We estimate a dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium model of the Brazilian economy taking into account the transition from a currency peg to inflation targeting that took place in 1999. The estimated model exhibits quite different dynamics under the two monetary regimes. We use it to produce counterfactual histories of the transition from one regime to another, given the estimated history of structural shocks. Our results suggest that maintaining the currency peg would have been too costly, as interest rates would have had to remain at extremely high levels for several quarters, and GDP would have collapsed. Accelerating the pace of nominal exchange rate devaluations after the Asian Crisis would have lead to higher inflation and interest rates, and slightly lower GDP. Finally, the first half of 1998 arguably provided a window of opportunity for a smooth transition between monetary regimes.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"682 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116109322","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}
{"title":"Construction of Economic Indicators Using Internet Searches","authors":"Mioara Popescu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2679256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2679256","url":null,"abstract":"The volume of online data searches can be used as indicators of economic analysis and forecasting. This paper reviews some of the applications that use the large data sets provided by the Internet user searches and presents a very specific case for Romanian economy. These data provide some additional information relative to existing surveys and with further development, internet search data could become an important tool for analysis and prediction.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123208491","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}
{"title":"Evaluating the Efficiency of FOMC's New Economic Projections","authors":"Natsuki Arai","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2393665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2393665","url":null,"abstract":"Since 2007, FOMC policymakers have been publishing detailed numerical projections of macroeconomic series over the next three years. By testing whether the revisions to these projections are unpredictable, I find that FOMC’s efficiency is generally accepted for inflation, but often rejected for real economic variables, notably for the unemployment rate. The rejection is due to the strong autocorrelation of revisions, which reflects the rigidity of FOMC’s forecasts about unemployment. The joint efficiency of the entire projection is accepted in most cases.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124968196","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}
{"title":"The Real-Time Predictive Content of Asset Price Bubbles for Macro Forecasts","authors":"Benjamin Beckers","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2639135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2639135","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the debate of whether central banks can \"lean against the wind\" of emerging stock or house price bubbles. Against this background, the paper evaluates if new advances in real-time bubble detection, as brought forward by Phillips et al. (2011), can timely detect bubble emergences and collapses. Building on simulations, the paper shows that the detection capabilities of all indicators are sensitive to their exact specifications and to the characteristics of the bubbles in the sample. Therefore, the paper suggests a combination approach of different bubble indicators which helps to account for the uncertainty around start and end dates of asset price bubbles. Additionally, the paper then investigates if the individual and combination indicators carry predictive content for inflation and output growth when the real-time availability of all variables is taken into account. It finds that a combination indicator is best suited to uncover the most common stock and house price bubbles in the U.S. and shows that this indicator improves output forecasts.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125993168","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}
{"title":"Has the Publication of Minutes Helped Markets to Predict the Monetary Policy Decisions of the Bank of England's MPC?","authors":"M. El-Shagi, Alexander Jung","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2621604","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2621604","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines whether the minutes of the Bank of England JEL Classification: C34, D78, E52, E58","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"192 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121737402","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}
Bořek Vašíček, Diana Žigraiová, M. Hoeberichts, R. Vermeulen, Kateřina Šmídková, J. de Haan
{"title":"Leading Indicators of Financial Stress: New Evidence","authors":"Bořek Vašíček, Diana Žigraiová, M. Hoeberichts, R. Vermeulen, Kateřina Šmídková, J. de Haan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2616628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2616628","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines which variables have predictive power for financial stress in a sample of 25 OECD countries, using a recently constructed Financial Stress Index (FSI). First, we employ Bayesian model averaging to identify leading indicators of our FSI. Next, we use those indicators as explanatory variables in a panel model for all our countries and in models at the individual country level. It turns out that panel models can hardly explain FSI dynamics. Although better results are achieved in models estimated at the country level, our findings suggest that (increases in) financial stress is (are) hard to predict out-of-sample.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115089954","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}
{"title":"Inflation, Debt and the Zero Lower Bound","authors":"S. Neri, A. Notarpietro","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2584492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2584492","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the macroeconomic effects of a protracted period of low and falling inflation rates when monetary policy is constrained by the zero lower bound (ZLB) on nominal interest rates and the private sector is indebted in nominal terms (debt-deflation channel). In this scenario, even cost-push shocks that in normal circumstances would reduce inflation and stimulate output are found to have contractionary effects on economic activity, especially when the interplay of ZLB and debt deflation is considered.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115560366","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}
{"title":"A Finite Set of Equilibria for the Indeterminacy of Linear Rational Expectations Models","authors":"Jean-Bernard Chatelain, K. Ralf","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2470562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2470562","url":null,"abstract":"This paper demonstrates the existence of a finite set of equilibria in the case of the indeterminacy of linear rational expectations models. The number of equilibria corresponds to the number of ways to select n eigenvectors among a larger set of eigenvectors related to stable eigenvalues. A finite set of equilibria is a substitute to continuous (uncountable) sets of sunspots equilibria, when the number of independent eigenvectors for each stable eigenvalue is equal to one.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"186 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125168017","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}
{"title":"Inflation, Unemployment, and Labour Force: Phillips Curves and Long-Term Projections for Austria","authors":"I. Kitov","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2324110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2324110","url":null,"abstract":"We model the rate of inflation and unemployment in Austria since the early 1960s within the Phillips/Fisher framework. The change in labour force is the driving force representing economic activity in the Phillips curve. For Austria, this macroeconomic variable was first tested as a predictor of inflation and unemployment in 2005 with the involved time series ended in 2003. Here we extend all series by nine new readings available since 2003 and re-estimate the previously estimated relationships between inflation, unemployment, and labour force. As before, a structural break is allowed in these relationships, which is related to numerous changes in definitions in the 1980s. The break year is estimated together with other model parameters by the Boundary Element Method with the LSQ fitting between observed and predicted integral curves. The precision of inflation prediction, as described by the root-mean-square (forecasting) error is by 20% to 70% better than that estimated by AR(1) model. The estimates of model forecasting error are available for those time series where the change in labour force leads by one (the GDP deflator) or two (CPI) years. For the whole period between 1965 and 2012 as well as for the intervals before and after the structural break (1986 for all inflation models) separately, our model is superior to the na\"ive forecasting, which in turn, is not worse than any other forecasting model. The level of statistical reliability and the predictive power of the link between inflation and labour force imply that the National Bank of Austria does not control inflation and unemployment beyond revisions to definitions. The labour force projection provided by Statistic Austria allows foreseeing inflation at a forty-year horizon: the rate of CPI inflation will hover around 1.3% and the GDP deflator will likely sink below zero between 2018 and 2034.","PeriodicalId":203235,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Forecasting & Simulation (Monetary) (Topic)","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121043691","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}