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Capturing Macro‐Economic Tail Risks with Bayesian Vector Autoregressions

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  • ANDREA CARRIERO
  • TODD E. CLARK
  • MASSIMILIANO MARCELLINO

Abstract

Many studies using quantile regressions (QRs) have found that downside risk to output growth varies more than upside risk. We show that Bayesian vector autoregressions (BVARs) with stochastic volatility are able to capture tail risks in forecast distributions. Even though the one‐step‐ahead conditional predictive distributions from the conventional stochastic volatility specification are symmetric, forecasts of downside risks to output growth are more variable than upside risks, and the reverse applies in the case of inflation and unemployment. Overall, BVAR models perform comparably to QR for estimating and forecasting tail risks, complementing BVARs' established performance for forecasting and structural analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Carriero & Todd E. Clark & Massimiliano Marcellino, 2024. "Capturing Macro‐Economic Tail Risks with Bayesian Vector Autoregressions," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(5), pages 1099-1127, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:56:y:2024:i:5:p:1099-1127
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.13121
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hilde C. Bjørnland & Roberto Casarin & Marco Lorusso & Francesco Ravazzolo, 2023. "Fiscal Policy Regimes in Resource-Rich Economies," Working Papers No 13/2023, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    3. Gefang, Deborah & Koop, Gary & Poon, Aubrey, 2023. "Forecasting using variational Bayesian inference in large vector autoregressions with hierarchical shrinkage," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 346-363.
    4. Andrea Carriero & Todd E. Clark & Massimiliano Marcellino, 2022. "Nowcasting tail risk to economic activity at a weekly frequency," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(5), pages 843-866, August.
    5. Martin Gachter & Elias Hasler & Florian Huber, 2023. "A tale of two tails: 130 years of growth-at-risk," Papers 2302.08920, arXiv.org.
    6. Pfarrhofer, Michael, 2022. "Modeling tail risks of inflation using unobserved component quantile regressions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    7. Adams, Patrick A. & Adrian, Tobias & Boyarchenko, Nina & Giannone, Domenico, 2021. "Forecasting macroeconomic risks," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1173-1191.
    8. Schick, Manuel, 2024. "Real-time Nowcasting Growth-at-Risk using the Survey of Professional Forecasters," Working Papers 0750, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    9. Kiss, Tamás & Nguyen, Hoang & Österholm, Pär, 2022. "The Relation between the High-Yield Bond Spread and the Unemployment Rate in the Euro Area," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    10. Leopoldo Catania & Alessandra Luati & Pierluigi Vallarino, 2021. "Economic vulnerability is state dependent," CREATES Research Papers 2021-09, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    11. Karlsson, Sune & Mazur, Stepan & Nguyen, Hoang, 2023. "Vector autoregression models with skewness and heavy tails," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Iseringhausen, Martin, 2024. "A time-varying skewness model for Growth-at-Risk," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 229-246.
    13. Huang, Yu-Fan & Liao, Wenting & Luo, Sui & Ma, Jun, 2024. "Financial conditions, macroeconomic uncertainty, and macroeconomic tail risks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    14. Kevin Moran & Dalibor Stevanovic & Stéphane Surprenant, 2024. "Risk Scenarios and Macroeconomic Forecasts," CIRANO Working Papers 2024s-03, CIRANO.
    15. Tamás Kiss & Stepan Mazur & Hoang Nguyen & Pär Österholm, 2023. "Modeling the relation between the US real economy and the corporate bond‐yield spread in Bayesian VARs with non‐Gaussian innovations," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 347-368, March.
    16. Szendrei, Tibor & Varga, Katalin, 2023. "Revisiting vulnerable growth in the Euro Area: Identifying the role of financial conditions in the distribution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    17. Falconio, Andrea & Manganelli, Simone, 2020. "Financial conditions, business cycle fluctuations and growth at risk," Working Paper Series 2470, European Central Bank.
    18. Garratt, Anthony & Henckel, Timo & Vahey, Shaun P., 2023. "Empirically-transformed linear opinion pools," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 736-753.
    19. Deng, Chuang & Wu, Jian, 2023. "Macroeconomic downside risk and the effect of monetary policy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    20. Mihail Yanchev, 2022. "Deep Growth-at-Risk Model: Nowcasting the 2020 Pandemic Lockdown Recession in Small Open Economies," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 7, pages 20-41.

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    JEL classification:

    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • E17 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • F47 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

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