Projecting the Medium-Term: Outcomes and Errors for GDP Growth

The focus of this paper is the evaluation of a very popular method for potential output estimation and medium-term forecasting? the production function approach?in terms of predictive performance. For this purpose, a forecast evaluation for the three to five years ahead predictions of GDP growth for the individual G7 countries is conducted. To carry out the forecast performance check a particular testing framework is derived that allows the computation of robust test statistics given the specific nature of the generated out-of sample forecasts. In addition, medium-term GDP projections from national and international institutions are examined and it is assessed whether these projections convey a reliable view about future economic developments and whether there is scope for improving their predictive content. --Potential output,projections,forecast evaluation

Panel Tests for Unit Roots in Hours Worked

Hours worked is a time series of interest in many empirical investigations of the macroeconomy. Estimates of macro elasticities of labour supply, for example, build on this variable. Other empirical applications investigate the response of hours worked to a shock to technology on the basis of the real business cycle model. Irrespective of the problem being addressed, robust inference of empirical outcomes strongly hinges on the adequately modelling of the time series of hours worked. The aim of the present paper is to provide cross country evidence of the non- stationarity of hours worked for OECD countries. For these purposes, panel unit root tests are employed to improve power against univariate counterparts. Since cross section correlation is a distinct feature of the underlying panel data, results are based on various second generation panel unit root tests which account for cross section dependence among units. If an unobserved common factor model is assumed for generating the observations, there is indication for both a common factor and idiosyncratic components driving the non-stationarity of hours worked. In addition, taking these results together, there is no indication of cointegration among the individual time series of hours worked. --Hours worked,panel unit root,cross section dependence,unobserved common factor,cointegration

The role of structural common and country-specific shocks in the business cycle dynamics of the G7 countries

The study analyses the business cycles of the G7 countries in a structural vector autoregression(SVAR) framework comprising output, nominal interest rate and inflation. Common and country-specific supply, demand and nominal shocks of each G7 country are identified, and the corresponding shock propagation channels are computed. We establish the statistical properties of the cyclical fluctuations and investigate the role of each structural common and country-specific shock in the cyclical fluctuations of the variables of interest as well as the business cycle co-movement in the G7 group of countries. --International Business Cycles,Common and Country-Specific Structural Shocks,Structural Vector Autoregression Models

Panel Tests for Unit Roots in Hours Worked

Hours worked is a time series of interest in many empirical investigations of the macroeconomy. Estimates of macro elasticities of labour supply, for example, build on this variable. Other empirical applications investigate the response of hours worked to a shock to technology on the basis of the real business cycle model. Irrespective of the problem being addressed, robust inference of empirical outcomes strongly hinges on the adequately modelling of the time series of hours worked. The aim of the present paper is to provide cross country evidence of the non-stationarity of hours worked for OECD countries. For these purposes, panel unit root tests are employed to improve power against univariate counterparts. Since cross section correlation is a distinct feature of the underlying panel data, results are based on various second generation panel unit root tests which account for cross section dependence among units. If an unobserved common factor model is assumed for generating the observations, there is indication for both a common factor and idiosyncratic components driving the non-stationarity of hours worked. In addition, taking these results together, there is no indication of cointegration among the individual time series of hours worked

Wie genau sind die Konjunkturprognosen der Institute für Deutschland?

Die vorliegende Arbeit diskutiert Ursachen für Unsicherheiten von Konjunkturprognosen und demonstriert die Berechnung von empirischen Prognoseintervallen. Die Verwendung empirischer Prognoseintervalle für eine Beurteilung der Signifikanz von Prognoserevisionen wird für den Median der Prognosen vier deutscher Wirtschaftsforschungsinstitute für die Entwicklung folgender volkswirtschaftlicher Kennziffern exemplarisch veranschaulicht: Reales Bruttoinlandsprodukt, private und öffentliche Konsumausgaben, Ausrüstungsinvestitionen, Ausfuhren und Einfuhren, Zahl der Erwerbstätigen sowie Verbraucherpreise. Der Analyse liegen Beobachtungen von 1980 bis 2004 zugrunde. Es zeigt sich, dass vor allem geringfügige Prognoserevisionen meistens keine wesentlich neuen Einschätzungen hinsichtlich der zukünftigen konjunkturellen Entwicklung signalisieren. Für eine Beurteilung der grundsatzlichen Prognoseschwierigkeit wurden die Medianprognosen der Institute in einem weiteren Untersuchungschritt alternativen Zeitreihenmodellen vom Typ ARI-MA gegenübergestellt. Die Institutsprognosen weisen gegenüber den Zeitreihenmodellen durchweg eine höhere Güte auf, wenn die Wurzel des mittleren quadratischen Prognosefehlers als Maßstab herangezogen wird. Allerdings sind deutliche Unterschiede in der Prognosepräzision der betrachteten volkswirtschaftlichen Kennziffern feststellbar

Wie genau sind die Konjunkturprognosen der Institute für Deutschland?

Die vorliegende Arbeit diskutiert Ursachen für Unsicherheiten von Konjunkturprognosen und demonstriert die Berechnung von empirischen Prognoseintervallen. Die Verwendung empirischer Prognoseintervalle für eine Beurteilung der Signifikanz von Prognoserevisionen wird für den Median der Prognosen vier deutscher Wirtschaftsforschungsinstitute für die Entwicklung folgender volkswirtschaftlicher Kennziffern exemplarisch veranschaulicht: Reales Bruttoinlandsprodukt, private und Öffentliche Konsumausgaben, Ausrüstungsinvestitionen, Ausfuhren und Einfuhren, Zahl der Erwerbstätigen sowie Verbraucherpreise. Der Analyse liegen Beobachtungen von 1980 bis 2004 zugrunde. Es zeigt sich, dass vor allem geringfügige Prognoserevisionen meistens keine wesentlich neuen Einschätzungen hinsichtlich der zukünftigen konjunkturellen Entwicklung signalisieren. Für eine Beurteilung der grundsätzlichen Prognoseschwierigkeit wurden die Medianprognosen der Institute in einem weiteren Untersuchungschritt alternativen Zeitreihenmodellen vom Typ ARI- MA gegenübergestellt. Die Institutsprognosen weisen gegenüber den Zeitreihenmodellen durchweg eine höhere Güte auf, wenn die Wurzel des mittleren quadratischen Prognosefehlers als Maßstab herangezogen wird. Allerdings sind deutliche Unterschiede in der Prognosepräzision der betrachteten volkswirtschaftlichen Kennziffern feststellbar. --

The Accuracy and Efficiency of the Consensus Forecasts: A Further Application and Extension of the Pooled Approach

In this paper we analyze the macroeconomic forecasts of the Consensus Forecasts for 12 countries over the period from 1996 to 2006 regarding bias and information efficiency. A pooled approach is employed which permits the evaluation of all forecasts for each target variable over 24 horizons simultaneously. It is shown how the pooled approach needs to be adjusted in order to accommodate the forecasting scheme of the Consensus Forecasts. Furthermore, the pooled approach is extended by a sequential test with the purpose of detecting the critical horizon after which the forecast should be regarded as biased. Moreover, heteroscedasticity in the form of year-specific variances of macroeconomic shocks is taken into account. The results show that in the analyzed period which was characterized by pronounced macroeconomic shocks, several countries show biased forecasts, especially with forecasts covering more than 12 months. In addition, information efficiency has to be rejected in almost all cases. --business cycle forecasting,forecast evaluation,Consensus Forecasts

Determination of Potential Growth Using Panel Techniques

The aim of this paper is to construct an indicator of potential growth for developed countries using the insights of the theoretical and empirical growth literature. The Pooled Mean Group Estimator of Pesaran, Shin and Smith (1999) that employs a panel data technique is used. This estimator is suited for integrated annual macroeconomic panel data sets to estimate long-run relationships between GDP per capita and its determinants of the underlying cross-section of 12 industrial countries. Since this long-run relationship describes a sort of structural relationship, one can use the fitted model to calculate an indicator of potential growth. The first part of the paper reviews the existing growth literature with a special focus on industrial countries in order to motivate for the used variables in the econometric analysis. The next part explains the concept of panel unit roots and panel cointegration and introduces the underlying empirical approach. Next, empirical results are presented and discussed. Then, the calculation of the potential growth indicator is demonstrated. The last part of this paper concludes. --Economic growth,Panel data,unit root,cointegration

Schätzungen und Prognosen des Produktionstrends und Modellierung des Arbeitseinsatzes : eine Anwendung von Panelmethoden und Faktormodellen

This thesis is concerned with various aspects of estimating trend output and growth and discusses and evaluates methods to prepare medium-term GDP growth projections. Furthermore, econometric techniques suited for cross-correlated macroeconomic panel data with a focus on factor models are applied for unit root and cointegration testing as well as panel error correction estimation. Applications involve the identification of growth determinants as well as the modelling of aggregate labor supply in a multi-country framework. The first chapter evaluates a very popular method for potential output estimation and medium-term forecasting---the production function approach---in terms of predictive performance. For this purpose, a particular forecast evaluation framework is developed and an evaluation of the predictions of GDP growth for the three to five years ahead for each individual G7 country is carried out. In chapter two, a new approach for estimating trend growth of advanced economies is proposed. The suggestion combines econometric methods that have been used to test and estimate the implications of the extended Solow growth model in a cross sectional time series setting with an application of multivariate time series filter techniques. The last chapter discusses several panel unit root tests designed to accommodate cross-sectional dependence. These methods are then applied to an OECD country sample of the aggregate labor supply measure "hours worked".Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten des empirischen Konzepts der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Trendproduktion und des Trendwachstums sowie diskutiert und evaluiert Methoden zur Erstellung mittelfristiger Wachstumsprojektionen des realen Bruttoinlandsprodukts. Darüber hinaus werden ökonometrische Techniken, die für den Umgang mit kreuzkorrelierten makroökonomischen Paneldaten entwickelt wurden und Kreuzabhängigkeiten insbesondere mit Hilfe von Faktormodellen abbilden, im Rahmen von Integrations- und Kointegrationsanalysen angewendet. Das erste Kapitel der Arbeit wertet den Produktionsfunktionsansatz, welcher eine sehr häufig eingesetzte Methode für die Schätzung des Produktionspotenzials und darauf aufbauende Mittelfristprognosen darstellt, aus. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein analytischer Rahmen erarbeitet, welcher die konsistente Analyse der Güte von mittelfristigen Prognosen auf Basis eines "out-of-sample"-Experiments ermöglicht. Das Vorgehen wird anhand von Drei- bis Fünfjahresprognosen des Wachstums des Bruttoinlandsprodukts für die G7-Länder demonstriert. Im zweiten Kapitel wird ein neues Vorgehen zur Schätzung des Trendwachstums in hochentwickelten Industrieländern konzipiert. Dabei wird ein ökonometrischer Ansatz zum Schätzen und Testen des neuklassischen Solow-Models auf Basis von Zeitreihen-Querschnittsdaten herangezogen, welcher mit multivariaten Filtertechniken der Zeitreihenanalyse kombiniert wird. Im letzten Kapitel werden mehrere Paneleinheitswurzeltests der sogenannten zweiten Generation diskutiert und auf die Fragestellung, ob die aggregierten Arbeitsstunden instationär sind, im OECD-Länderquerschnitt angewendet

How many factors and shocks cause financial stress?

The aim of this paper is to assess the dimension of factors and shocks that drive financial conditions, and in particular financial stress in the euro area. A second aim is to construct summary indices on the conditions and level of stress in financial markets with the aid of a dynamic factor model. By analysing 149 newly compiled monthly time series on financial market conditions in the euro area, our results suggest that the data respond quite differently to fundamental shocks to financial markets but the dimension of these shocks is rather limited. Consequently, countries or segments of the financial sector in the euro area react fairly heterogonously to such shocks. We estimate several common factors and by means of an exploratory analysis we give them an economic interpretation. We find that the existence of a "Periphery Banking Crisis" factor, a "Stress" factor and a "Yield Curve" factor explains the bulk of variation in recent euro area financial sector data