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How Useful Are Estimated DSGE Model Forecasts for Central Bankers?

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  • Rochelle M. Edge
  • Refet S. Gurkaynak

Abstract

DSGE models are a prominent tool for forecasting at central banks and the competitive forecasting performance of these models relative to alternatives--including official forecasts--has been documented. When evaluating DSGE models on an absolute basis, however, we find that the benchmark estimated medium scale DSGE model forecasts inflation and GDP growth very poorly, although statistical and judgmental forecasts forecast as poorly. Our finding is the DSGE model analogue of the literature documenting the recent poor performance of macroeconomic forecasts relative to simple naive forecasts since the onset of the Great Moderation. While this finding is broadly consistent with the DSGE model we employ--ie, the model itself implies that under strong monetary policy especially inflation deviations should be unpredictable--a 'wrong' model may also have the same implication. We therefore argue that forecasting ability during the Great Moderation is not a good metric to judge models.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution in its journal Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.

Volume (Year): 41 (2010)
Issue (Month): 2 (Fall) ()
Pages: 209-259

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Handle: RePEc:bin:bpeajo:v:41:y:2010:i:2010-02:p:209-259

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Keywords: bank; banker; DSGE; forecast; macroeconomic;

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References

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  1. Kirdan Lees & Troy Matheson & Christie Smith, 2007. "Open Economy Dsge-Var Forecasting And Policy Analysis: Head To Head With The Rbnz Published Forecasts," CAMA Working Papers 2007-05, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
  2. Refet S. Gürkaynak & Brian Sack & Eric Swanson, 2002. "Market-based measures of monetary policy expectations," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-40, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  3. Wieland, Volker & Wolters, Maik H, 2010. "The Diversity of Forecasts from Macroeconomic Models of the U.S. Economy," CEPR Discussion Papers 7870, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  4. Refet Gürkaynak & Justin Wolfers, 2005. "Macroeconomic Derivatives: An Initial Analysis of Market-Based Macro Forecasts, Uncertainty, and Risk," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2005, pages 11-50 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Jon Faust & Jonathan H. Wright, 2007. "Comparing Greenbook and Reduced Form Forecasts using a Large Realtime Dataset," NBER Working Papers 13397, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Bharat Trehan, 2009. "Survey measures of expected inflation and the inflation process," Working Paper Series 2009-10, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  7. D''Agostino, Antonello & Giannone, Domenico & Surico, Paolo, 2007. "(Un)Predictability and Macroeconomic Stability," CEPR Discussion Papers 6594, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Rochelle M. Edge & Michael T. Kiley & Jean-Philippe Laforte, 2008. "A Comparison Of Forecast Performance Between Federal Reserve Staff Forecasts, Simple Reduced-Form Models, And A Dsge Model," CAMA Working Papers 2009-03, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
  9. John P. Judd & Bharat Trehan, 1992. "Money, credit, and M2," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Sep 4.
  10. Antonello D’ Agostino & Domenico Giannone, 2012. "Comparing Alternative Predictors Based on Large‐Panel Factor Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(2), pages 306-326, 04.
  11. Jeff Fuhrer & Giovanni Olivei & Geoffrey M. B. Tootell, 2009. "Empirical estimates of changing inflation dynamics," Working Papers 09-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
  12. Malin Adolfson & Michael K. Andersson & Jesper Lindé & Mattias Villani & Anders Vredin, 2007. "Modern Forecasting Models in Action: Improving Macroeconomic Analyses at Central Banks," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 3(4), pages 111-144, December.
  13. Andrew Atkeson & Lee E. Ohanian., 2001. "Are Phillips curves useful for forecasting inflation?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Win, pages 2-11.
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Cited by:
  1. Ippei Fujiwara & Yasuo Hirose, 2012. "Indeterminacy and Forecastability," CAMA Working Papers 2012-48, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
  2. Edward Herbst & Frank Schorfheide, 2011. "Evaluating DSGE model forecasts of comovements," Working Papers 11-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  3. Wolters, Maik Hendrik, 2012. "Evaluating point and density forecasts of DSGE models," MPRA Paper 36147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  4. Marco Del Negro & Frank Schorfheide, 2012. "DSGE model-based forecasting," Staff Reports 554, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  5. Marco Del Negro & Marc Giannoni & Christina Patterson, 2012. "The forward guidance puzzle," Staff Reports 574, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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