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A brief history of forecasting competitions

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  • Hyndman, Rob J.

Abstract

Forecasting competitions are now so widespread that it is often forgotten how controversial they were when first held, and how influential they have been over the years. I briefly review the history of forecasting competitions, and discuss what we have learned about their design and implementation, and what they can tell us about forecasting. I also provide a few suggestions for potential future competitions, and for research about forecasting based on competitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Hyndman, Rob J., 2020. "A brief history of forecasting competitions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 7-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:36:y:2020:i:1:p:7-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2019.03.015
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    1. Crone, Sven F. & Hibon, Michèle & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos, 2011. "Advances in forecasting with neural networks? Empirical evidence from the NN3 competition on time series prediction," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 635-660.
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    8. Hong, Tao & Xie, Jingrui & Black, Jonathan, 2019. "Global energy forecasting competition 2017: Hierarchical probabilistic load forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1389-1399.
    9. Athanasopoulos, George & Hyndman, Rob J. & Song, Haiyan & Wu, Doris C., 2011. "The tourism forecasting competition," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 822-844, July.
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    13. Hyndman, Rob J. & Koehler, Anne B., 2006. "Another look at measures of forecast accuracy," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 679-688.
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    20. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Kouloumos, Andreas & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Makridakis, Spyros, 2020. "Are forecasting competitions data representative of the reality?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 37-53.
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    6. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Chen, Zhi & Gaba, Anil & Tsetlin, Ilia & Winkler, Robert L., 2022. "The M5 uncertainty competition: Results, findings and conclusions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1365-1385.
    7. Bojer, Casper Solheim & Meldgaard, Jens Peder, 2021. "Kaggle forecasting competitions: An overlooked learning opportunity," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 587-603.
    8. Wang, Xiaoqian & Hyndman, Rob J. & Li, Feng & Kang, Yanfei, 2023. "Forecast combinations: An over 50-year review," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1518-1547.
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    10. Semenoglou, Artemios-Anargyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Makridakis, Spyros & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Investigating the accuracy of cross-learning time series forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1072-1084.
    11. Wellens, Arnoud P. & Udenio, Maxi & Boute, Robert N., 2022. "Transfer learning for hierarchical forecasting: Reducing computational efforts of M5 winning methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1482-1491.
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    13. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2020. "The M4 Competition: 100,000 time series and 61 forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 54-74.
    14. Spyros Makridakis & Chris Fry & Fotios Petropoulos & Evangelos Spiliotis, 2022. "The Future of Forecasting Competitions: Design Attributes and Principles," INFORMS Joural on Data Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 96-113, April.
    15. Jennifer L. Castle & Jurgen A. Doornik & David F. Hendry, 2021. "Forecasting Principles from Experience with Forecasting Competitions," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-28, February.
    16. Mamonov, Nikolay & Golubyatnikov, Evgeny & Kanevskiy, Daniel & Gusakov, Igor, 2022. "GoodsForecast second-place solution in M5 Uncertainty track: Combining heterogeneous models for a quantile estimation task," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1434-1441.
    17. Ulrich Gunter & Irem Önder & Egon Smeral, 2020. "Are Combined Tourism Forecasts Better at Minimizing Forecasting Errors?," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2022. "M5 accuracy competition: Results, findings, and conclusions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1346-1364.
    19. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2022. "The M5 competition: Background, organization, and implementation," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1325-1336.
    20. Erol Eğrioğlu & Robert Fildes, 2022. "A New Bootstrapped Hybrid Artificial Neural Network Approach for Time Series Forecasting," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 1355-1383, April.
    21. Theodorou, Evangelos & Wang, Shengjie & Kang, Yanfei & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Makridakis, Spyros & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2022. "Exploring the representativeness of the M5 competition data," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1500-1506.

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