Accuracy, Unbiasedness and Efficiency of Professional Macroeconomic Forecasts: An empirical Comparison for the G7

In this paper, we use survey data to analyze the accuracy, unbiasedness, and the efficiency of professional macroeconomic forecasts. We analyze a large panel of individual forecasts that has not been analyzed in the literature so far. We provide evidence on the properties of forecasts for all G7 counties and for four diffierent macroeconomic variables. Our results show a high degree of dispersion of forecast accuracy across forecasters. We also find that there are large diffierences in the performance of forecasters not only across countries but also across diffierent macroeconomic variables. In general, forecasts tend to be biased in situations where forecasters have to respond to large structural shocks or gradual changes in the trend of a variable. Furthermore, while a sizable fraction of forecasters seem to smooth their GDP forecasts significantly, this does not apply to forecasts made for other macroeconomic variables.Evaluating forecasts, Macroeconomic Forecasting, Rationality, Survey Data, Fixed-Event Forecasts

What macroeconomic shocks affect the German banking system? Analysis in an integrated micro-macro model

We analyze what macroeconomic shocks affect the soundness of the German banking system and how this, in turn, feeds back into the macroeconomic environment. Recent turmoils on the international financial markets have shown very clearly that assessing the degree to which banks are vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks is of utmost importance to investors and policy makers. We propose to use a VAR framework that takes feedback effects between the financial sector and the macroeconomic environment into account. We identify responses of a distress indicator for the German banking system to a battery of different structural shocks. We find that monetary policy shocks, fiscal policy shocks, and real estate price shocks have a significant impact on the probability of distress in the banking system. We identify some differences across type of banks and different distress categories, though these differences are often small and do not show any systematic patterns. --VAR,banking sector stability,sign restriction approach

Disagreement among Forecasters in G7 Countries

Using the Consensus Economics dataset with individual expert forecasts from G7 countries we investigate determinants of disagreement (crosssectional dispersion of forecasts) about six key economic indicators. Disagreement about real variables (GDP, consumption, investment and unemployment) has a distinct dynamic from disagreement about nominal variables (in ation and interest rate). Disagreement about real variables intensifes strongly during recessions, including the current one (by about 40 percent in terms of the interquartile range). Disagreement about nominal variables rises with their level, has fallen after 1998 or so (by 30 percent), and is considerably lower under independent central banks (by 35 percent). Cross-sectional dispersion for both groups increases with uncertainty about the underlying actual indicators, though to a lesser extent for nominal series. Countryby- country regressions for inflation and interest rates reveal that both the level of disagreement and its sensitivity to macroeconomic variables tend to be larger in Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, where central banks became independent only around the mid-1990s. These findings suggest that more credible monetary policy can substantially contribute to anchoring of expectations about nominal variables; its eects on disagreement about real variables are moderate.disagreement, survey expectations, monetary policy, forecasting

Estimating fundamental cross-section dispersion from fixed event forecasts

A couple of recent papers have shifted the focus towards disagreement of professional forecasters. When dealing with survey data that is sampled at a frequency higher than annual and that includes only fixed event forecasts, e.g. expectation of average annual growth rates measures of disagreement across forecasters naturally are distorted by a component that mainly reflects the time varying forecast horizon. We use data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, which reports both fixed event and fixed horizon forecasts, to evaluate different methods for extracting the ``fundamental'' component of disagreement. Based on the paper's results we suggest two methods to estimate dispersion measures from panels of fixed event forecasts: a moving average transformation of the underlying forecasts and estimation with constant forecast-horizon-effects. Both models are easy to handle and deliver equally well performing results, which show a surprisingly high correlation (up to 0.94) with the true dispersion.survey data, dispersion, disagreement, fixed event forecasts

Predicting GDP components: do leading indicators increase predictability?

We use the concept of predictability as presented in Diebold and Kilian (2001) to assess how well the growth rates of various components of German GDP can be forecasted. In particular, it is analyzed how well different commonly used leading indicators can increase predictability of these time series. To this end, we propose an algorithm to select an optimal information set from a full set of possible leading indicators. In the univariate set up, we find very small degrees of predictability for all quarterly growth rates whereas yearly growth rates seem to be more predictable at short forecast horizons. According to the algorithm proposed, from a set of financial leading indicators the short term interest rate is included in the highest number of information sets and from a set of survey indicators the ifo-business expectation index is included in most cases. Conditioning on the optimal sets of leading indicators improves the predictability of most of the quarterly growth rates substantially while the predictabilities of the yearly growth rates cannot be increased significantly further. The results indicate that there is clearly evidence that complicated forecasting models are usually superior to simple AR univariate models

Estimating Fundamental Cross-Section Dispersion from Fixed Event Forecasts

A couple of recent papers have shifted the focus towards disagreement of professional forecasters. When dealing with survey data that is sampled at a frequency higher than annual and that includes only fixed event forecasts, e.g. expectation of average annual growth rates measures of disagreement across forecasters naturally are distorted by a component that mainly reflects the time varying forecast horizon. We use data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, which reports both fixed event and fixed horizon forecasts, to evaluate different methods for extracting the "fundamental" component of disagreement. Based on the paper's results we suggest two methods to estimate dispersion measures from panels of fixed event forecasts: a moving average transformation of the underlying forecasts and estimation with constant forecast-horizon- effects. Both models are easy to handle and deliver equally well performing results, which show a surprisingly high correlation (up to 0:94) with the true dispersion.Survey data, dispersion, disagreement, fixed event forecasts

European inflation expectations dynamics

This paper investigates the relevance of the sticky information model of Mankiw and Reis (2002) and Carroll (2003) for four major European economies (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom). As opposed to the benchmark rational expectation models, households in the sticky information environment update their expectations sporadically rather than instantaneously owing to the costs of acquiring and processing information. We estimate two alternative parametrizations of the sticky information model which differ in the stationarity assumptions about the underlying series. Using survey data on households? and experts? inflation expectations, we find that the model adequately captures the dynamics of household inflation expectations. Both parametrizations imply comparable speeds of information updating for the European households as was previously found in the US, on average roughly once a year. --Inflation,expectations,sticky information,inflation persistence

The Dynamics of European Inflation Expectations

We investigate the relevance of the Carroll's sticky information model of inflation expectations for four major European economies (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom). Using survey data on household and expert inflation expectations we argue that the model adequately captures the dynamics of household inflation expectations. We estimate two alternative parametrizations of the sticky information model which differ in the stationarity assumptions about the underlying series. Our baseline stationary estimation suggests that the average frequency of information updating for the European households is roughly once in 18 months. The vector error-correction model implies households update information about once a year.Inflation expectations, sticky information, inflation persistence

Sticky information Phillips curves: European evidence

We estimate the sticky information Phillips curve model of Mankiw and Reis (2002) using survey expectations of professional forecasters from four major European economies. Our estimates imply that inflation expectations in France, Germany and the United Kingdom are updated about once a year, in Italy about once each six months. JEL Classification: E62, H20, H50, H62inflation expectations, Inflation persistence, Phillips curve, sticky information

Immobilienkrise in den Vereinigten Staaten: Historischer Vergleich und Implikationen für den Konjunkturverlauf

Die spürbare Dämpfung der Konjunktur in den Vereinigten Staaten infolge der Immobilienmarktkrise dürfte bis ins Jahr 2009 anhalten. Ein Vergleich mit den Verläufen von historischen Immobilienmarktabschwüngen in 15 Industrieländern sowie eine Analyse auf Basis eines vektorautoregressiven Modells lassen erwarten, dass sich die Wohnungsbaurezession wohl bis Mitte 2009 fortsetzten wird. Für die gesamtwirtschaftliche Produktion deuten alle Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass vor allem im ersten Halbjahr 2008 mit einer schwachen Entwicklung zu rechnen ist; dass es dabei zu einem deutlichen Rückgang der Produktion in beiden Quartalen kommt, ist jedoch nicht zwingend. Über den gesamten Immobilienmarktabschwung betrachtet, wird die Konjunktur aufgrund der starken Entwicklung während des vergangenen Sommerhalbjahres wahrscheinlich weniger in Mitleidenschaft gezogen werden als im Durchschnitt der historischen Krisen. Hierfür spricht nicht zuletzt das sehr niedrige Realzinsniveau