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Panel forecasts of country-level Covid-19 infections

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  • Liu, Laura
  • Moon, Hyungsik Roger
  • Schorfheide, Frank

Abstract

We use a dynamic panel data model to generate density forecasts for daily active Covid-19 infections for a panel of countries/regions. Our specification that assumes the growth rate of active infections can be represented by autoregressive fluctuations around a downward sloping deterministic trend function with a break. Our fully Bayesian approach allows us to flexibly estimate the cross-sectional distribution of slopes and then implicitly use this distribution as prior to construct Bayes forecasts for the individual time series. We find some evidence that information from locations with an early outbreak can sharpen forecast accuracy for late locations. There is generally a lot of uncertainty about the evolution of active infection, due to parameter and shock uncertainty, in particular before and around the peak of the infection path. Over a one-week horizon, the empirical coverage frequency of our interval forecasts is close to the nominal credible level. Weekly forecasts from our model are published at https://laurayuliu.com/covid19-panel-forecast/.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Laura & Moon, Hyungsik Roger & Schorfheide, Frank, 2021. "Panel forecasts of country-level Covid-19 infections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 2-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:econom:v:220:y:2021:i:1:p:2-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2020.08.010
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    6. Laura Liu & Hyungsik Roger Moon & Frank Schorfheide, 2023. "Forecasting with a panel Tobit model," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(1), pages 117-159, January.
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    9. Ross Askanazi & Francis X. Diebold & Frank Schorfheide & Minchul Shin, 2018. "On the Comparison of Interval Forecasts," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 953-965, November.
    10. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Jones, Charles I., 2022. "Estimating and simulating a SIRD Model of COVID-19 for many countries, states, and cities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    11. Giordani, Paolo & Kohn, Robert, 2008. "Efficient Bayesian Inference for Multiple Change-Point and Mixture Innovation Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 26, pages 66-77, January.
    12. Smith, Michael & Kohn, Robert, 1996. "Nonparametric regression using Bayesian variable selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 317-343, December.
    13. Laura Liu, 2018. "Density Forecasts in Panel Data Models : A Semiparametric Bayesian Perspective," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2018-036, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Larson, William D. & Sinclair, Tara M., 2022. "Nowcasting unemployment insurance claims in the time of COVID-19," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 635-647.
    15. Christopher Avery & William Bossert & Adam Clark & Glenn Ellison & Sara Fisher Ellison, 2020. "Policy Implications of Models of the Spread of Coronavirus: Perspectives and Opportunities for Economists," NBER Working Papers 27007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Jiaying Gu & Roger Koenker, 2017. "Unobserved Heterogeneity in Income Dynamics: An Empirical Bayes Perspective," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Christopher Avery & William Bossert & Adam Thomas Clark & Glenn Ellison & Sara Ellison, 2020. "Policy Implications of Models of the Spread of Coronavirus: Perspectives and Opportunities for Economists," CESifo Working Paper Series 8293, CESifo.
    18. Li, Shaoran & Linton, Oliver, 2021. "When will the Covid-19 pandemic peak?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 130-157.
    19. Chib, Siddhartha, 1998. "Estimation and comparison of multiple change-point models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 221-241, June.
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    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Health > Measurement

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    Cited by:

    1. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Jones, Charles I., 2022. "Estimating and simulating a SIRD Model of COVID-19 for many countries, states, and cities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Cem Cakmakli & Yasin Simsek, 2023. "Bridging the Covid-19 Data and the Epidemiological Model using Time-Varying Parameter SIRD Model," Papers 2301.13692, arXiv.org.
    3. Li, Shaoran & Linton, Oliver, 2021. "When will the Covid-19 pandemic peak?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 130-157.
    4. Yothin Jinjarak & Rashad Ahmed & Sameer Nair-Desai & Weining Xin & Joshua Aizenman, 2020. "Accounting for Global COVID-19 Diffusion Patterns, January–April 2020," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 515-559, October.
    5. Hwang, Eunju, 2022. "Prediction intervals of the COVID-19 cases by HAR models with growth rates and vaccination rates in top eight affected countries: Bootstrap improvement," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Chaohua Dong & Jiti Gao & Oliver Linton & Bin peng, 2020. "On Time Trend of COVID-19: A Panel Data Study," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 22/20, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    7. Yanqing Yang & Xingcheng Xu & Jinfeng Ge & Yan Xu, 2024. "Machine Learning for Economic Forecasting: An Application to China's GDP Growth," Papers 2407.03595, arXiv.org.
    8. Leonardo Martins & Marcelo C. Medeiros, 2021. "The Impacts of Mobility on Covid-19 Dynamics: Using Soft and Hard Data," Papers 2110.00597, arXiv.org.
    9. Lee, Sokbae & Liao, Yuan & Seo, Myung Hwan & Shin, Youngki, 2021. "Sparse HP filter: Finding kinks in the COVID-19 contact rate," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 158-180.
    10. Paul Ho, 2021. "Forecasting in the Absence of Precedent," Working Paper 21-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    11. Julliard, Christian & Shi, Ran & Yuan, Kathy, 2023. "The spread of COVID-19 in London: Network effects and optimal lockdowns," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2125-2154.
    12. Hartl, Tobias, 2021. "Monitoring the pandemic: A fractional filter for the COVID-19 contact rate," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242380, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Zubarev, Andrei & Kirillova, Maria, 2022. "Modeling COVID-19 spread in the Russian Federation using global VAR approach," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 65, pages 117-138.
    14. Ho, Paul & Lubik, Thomas A. & Matthes, Christian, 2023. "How to go viral: A COVID-19 model with endogenously time-varying parameters," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 232(1), pages 70-86.
    15. Christian Alemán & Christopher Busch & Alexander Ludwig & Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis, 2022. "A Stage-Based Identification of Policy Effects," Working Papers 1369, Barcelona School of Economics.
    16. Difang Huang & Ying Liang & Boyao Wu & Yanyi Ye, 2024. "Estimating the Impact of Social Distance Policy in Mitigating COVID-19 Spread with Factor-Based Imputation Approach," Papers 2405.12180, arXiv.org.
    17. Guenette,Justin Damien & Yamazaki,Takefumi, 2021. "Projecting the Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9589, The World Bank.
    18. Sen, Anindya & Baker, John David & Zhang, Qihuang & Agarwal, Rishav Raj & Lam, Jean-Paul, 2023. "Do more stringent policies reduce daily COVID-19 case counts? Evidence from Canadian provinces," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 225-242.
    19. Otilia Boldea & Adriana Cornea-Madeira & João Madeira, 2023. "Disentangling the effect of measures, variants, and vaccines on SARS-CoV-2 infections in England: a dynamic intensity model," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 444-466.
    20. Tobias Hartl, 2021. "Monitoring the pandemic: A fractional filter for the COVID-19 contact rate," Papers 2102.10067, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bayesian inference; Covid-19; Density forecasts; Interval forecasts; Panel data models; Random effects; SIR model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods

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