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Combining forecasts from nested models

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  • Todd E. Clark
  • Michael W. McCracken

Abstract

Motivated by the common finding that linear autoregressive models often forecast better than models that incorporate additional information, this paper presents analytical, Monte Carlo, and empirical evidence on the effectiveness of combining forecasts from nested models. In our analytics, the unrestricted model is true, but a subset of the coefficients are treated as being local-to-zero. This approach captures the practical reality that the predictive content of variables of interest is often low. We derive MSE-minimizing weights for combining the restricted and unrestricted forecasts. Monte Carlo and empirical analyses verify the practical e effectiveness of our combination approach.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its series Working Papers with number 2008-037.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2008-037

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Keywords: Econometric models ; Economic forecasting;

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Hong, Han & Preston, Bruce, 2012. "Bayesian averaging, prediction and nonnested model selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 167(2), pages 358-369.
  2. Todd E. Clark & Michael W. McCracken, 2008. "Averaging forecasts from VARs with uncertain instabilities," Working Papers 2008-030, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  3. Lima, Luiz Renato Regis de Oliveira & Issler, João Victor, 2008. "A Panel Data Approach to Economic Forecasting: The Bias-Corrected Average Forecast," Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 668, Graduate School of Economics, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).
  4. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2008. "Phillips Curve Inflation Forecasts," NBER Working Papers 14322, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Eric Hillebrand & Tae-Hwy Lee, 2012. "Stein-Rule Estimation and Generalized Shrinkage Methods for Forecasting Using Many Predictors," CREATES Research Papers 2012-18, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus.
  6. Todd E. Clark & Michael W. McCracken, 2006. "Forecasting of small macroeconomic VARs in the presence of instabilities," Research Working Paper RWP 06-09, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
  7. Huiyu Huang & Tae-Hwy Lee, 2006. "To Combine Forecasts or to Combine Information?," Working Papers 200806, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2009.
  8. Carriero, Andrea & Giacomini, Raffaella, 2011. "How useful are no-arbitrage restrictions for forecasting the term structure of interest rates?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 164(1), pages 21-34, September.

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