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Estimating Large-Scale Factor Models for Economic Activity in Germany: Do They Outperform Simpler Models? / Die Schätzung von großen Faktormodellen für die deutsche Volkswirtschaft: Übertreffen sie einfachere Modelle?

Author

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  • Schumacher Christian

    (Deutsche Bundesbank, Wilhelm-Epstein-Straße 14, D-60431 Frankfurt am Main. Tel.: ++49/+69-95 66-29 39, Fax: ++49/+69-95 66-29 82, Germany)

  • Dreger Christian

    (Halle Institute for Economic Research – IWH, Kleine Märkerstraße 8, D-06108 Halle (Saale). Tel.: ++49/+3 45-77 53-8 54, Fax: ++49/+3 45-77 53-8 20, Germany)

Abstract

This paper discusses a large-scale factor model for the German economy, Following the recent literature, a data set of 121 time series is used to determine the factors by principal component analysis. The factors enter a linear dynamic model for German GDP. To evaluate its empirical properties, the model is compared with alternative univariate and multivariate models. These simpler models are based on regression techniques and considerably smaller data sets. Empirical forecast tests show that the large-scale factor model almost always encompasses its rivals. Moreover, out-of-sample forecasts of the large-scale factor model have smaller prediction errors than the forecasts of the alternative models. However, these advantages are not statistically significant, as a test for equal forecast accuracy shows. Therefore, the efficiency gains of using a large data set with this kind of factor models seem to be limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Schumacher Christian & Dreger Christian, 2004. "Estimating Large-Scale Factor Models for Economic Activity in Germany: Do They Outperform Simpler Models? / Die Schätzung von großen Faktormodellen für die deutsche Volkswirtschaft: Übertreffen sie ei," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 224(6), pages 731-750, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:224:y:2004:i:6:p:731-750
    DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2004-0606
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    3. Gupta, Rangan & Kabundi, Alain, 2011. "A large factor model for forecasting macroeconomic variables in South Africa," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 1076-1088, October.
    4. Kholodilin Konstantin Arkadievich & Siliverstovs Boriss, 2006. "On the Forecasting Properties of the Alternative Leading Indicators for the German GDP: Recent Evidence," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 226(3), pages 234-259, June.
    5. Andrejs Bessonovs, 2015. "Suite of Latvia's GDP forecasting models," Working Papers 2015/01, Latvijas Banka.
    6. Konstantin Arkadievich Kholodilin & Boriss Siliverstovs & Stefan Kooths, 2008. "A Dynamic Panel Data Approach to the Forecasting of the GDP of German Länder," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 195-207.
    7. Siliverstovs Boriss & Kholodilin Konstantin A., 2012. "Assessing the Real-Time Informational Content of Macroeconomic Data Releases for Now-/Forecasting GDP: Evidence for Switzerland," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 232(4), pages 429-444, August.
    8. Jason Angelopoulos, 2017. "Creating and assessing composite indicators: Dynamic applications for the port industry and seaborne trade," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 19(1), pages 126-159, March.
    9. Gupta, Rangan & Kabundi, Alain & Miller, Stephen M., 2011. "Forecasting the US real house price index: Structural and non-structural models with and without fundamentals," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 2013-2021, July.
    10. Drechsel, Katja & Scheufele, Rolf, 2010. "Should We Trust in Leading Indicators? Evidence from the Recent Recession," IWH Discussion Papers 10/2010, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    11. Marc Hallin & Roman Liska, 2008. "Dynamic Factors in the Presence of Block Structure," Working Papers ECARES 2008_012, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Kristensen Johannes Tang, 2014. "Factor-based forecasting in the presence of outliers: Are factors better selected and estimated by the median than by the mean?," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-30, May.
    13. Drechsel, Katja & Scheufele, Rolf, 2012. "The performance of short-term forecasts of the German economy before and during the 2008/2009 recession," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 428-445.
    14. Schumacher Christian, 2011. "Forecasting with Factor Models Estimated on Large Datasets: A Review of the Recent Literature and Evidence for German GDP," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(1), pages 28-49, February.
    15. In Choi & Hanbat Jeong, 2019. "Model selection for factor analysis: Some new criteria and performance comparisons," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 577-596, July.
    16. Christian Schulz, 2007. "Forecasting economic growth for Estonia : application of common factor methodologies," Bank of Estonia Working Papers 2007-09, Bank of Estonia, revised 04 Sep 2007.

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