IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v32y1986i6p683-695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unstable Weights in the Combination of Forecasts

Author

Listed:
  • Heejoon Kang

    (Graduate School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405)

Abstract

The weights used in the combination of forecasts are shown to be very unstable. They are generally so unstable that the combined forecasts often do not perform better than some of the individual forecasts or a simple average of the forecasts in practice. The instability is found from a series of Monte Carlo experiments as well as from the nominal GNP forecasts from four well-known macro forecasters. The Monte Carlo experiments also show that when the underlying models are known, a composite forecast from a composite model is generally more accurate than the combination of the individual forecasts. A simple average is shown to be the best technique to use in practice, because the weights in the combination are so unstable.

Suggested Citation

  • Heejoon Kang, 1986. "Unstable Weights in the Combination of Forecasts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(6), pages 683-695, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:32:y:1986:i:6:p:683-695
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.32.6.683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.6.683
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.32.6.683?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. João F. Caldeira & Guilherme V. Moura & Francisco J. Nogales & André A. P. Santos, 2017. "Combining Multivariate Volatility Forecasts: An Economic-Based Approach," The Journal of Financial Econometrics, Society for Financial Econometrics, vol. 15(2), pages 247-285.
    2. Capistrán, Carlos & Timmermann, Allan, 2009. "Forecast Combination With Entry and Exit of Experts," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 27(4), pages 428-440.
    3. Blanc, Sebastian M. & Setzer, Thomas, 2016. "When to choose the simple average in forecast combination," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 3951-3962.
    4. P. J. Lamberson & Scott E. Page, 2012. "Optimal Forecasting Groups," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 805-810, April.
    5. de Menezes, Lilian M. & W. Bunn, Derek & Taylor, James W., 2000. "Review of guidelines for the use of combined forecasts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 190-204, January.
    6. Issler, João Victor & Lima, Luiz Renato, 2009. "A panel data approach to economic forecasting: The bias-corrected average forecast," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 152(2), pages 153-164, October.
    7. Guidolin, Massimo & Timmermann, Allan, 2009. "Forecasts of US short-term interest rates: A flexible forecast combination approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2), pages 297-311, June.
    8. Timmermann, Allan, 2006. "Forecast Combinations," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 135-196, Elsevier.
    9. Kamstra, Mark & Kennedy, Peter, 1998. "Combining qualitative forecasts using logit," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 83-93, March.
    10. Rossi, Barbara, 2013. "Advances in Forecasting under Instability," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1203-1324, Elsevier.
    11. 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.
    12. Zhenni Ding & Huayou Chen & Ligang Zhou, 2023. "Using shapely values to define subgroups of forecasts for combining," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 905-923, July.
    13. He, Kaijian & Yu, Lean & Lai, Kin Keung, 2012. "Crude oil price analysis and forecasting using wavelet decomposed ensemble model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 564-574.
    14. Bacci, Livio Agnew & Mello, Luiz Gustavo & Incerti, Taynara & Paulo de Paiva, Anderson & Balestrassi, Pedro Paulo, 2019. "Optimization of combined time series methods to forecast the demand for coffee in Brazil: A new approach using Normal Boundary Intersection coupled with mixture designs of experiments and rotated fact," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 186-211.
    15. Webby, Richard & O'Connor, Marcus, 1996. "Judgemental and statistical time series forecasting: a review of the literature," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 91-118, March.
    16. Keunkwan Ryu & Kuo-yuan Liang, 1992. "Relationship of Forecast Encompassing to Composite Forecasts with Simulations and an Application," UCLA Economics Working Papers 668, UCLA Department of Economics.
    17. Zhao, Weigang & Wang, Jianzhou & Lu, Haiyan, 2014. "Combining forecasts of electricity consumption in China with time-varying weights updated by a high-order Markov chain model," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 80-91.
    18. Mostaghimi, Mehdi, 1996. "Combining ranked mean value forecasts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 505-516, November.
    19. Blattenberger, Gail & Fowles, Richard, 1995. "Road closure to mitigate avalanche danger: a case study for Little Cottonwood Canyon," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 159-174, March.
    20. Maines, Laureen A., 1996. "An experimental examination of subjective forecast combination," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 223-233, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    forecasting;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:32:y:1986:i:6:p:683-695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.