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Do private sector forecasters desire to deviate from the German council of economic experts?

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  • Jan-Christoph Rülke

Abstract

In this paper, we contrast more than 6,000 private sector forecasts to projections of the German council of economic experts (Sachverständigenrat). Although the forecasts are submitted simultaneously, we find that the council's real economy forecasts, i.e. their growth, unemployment and fiscal forecasts have a higher forecast accuracy compared to the private sector forecasts. We also document that private sector forecasters deliberately place their real economy forecasts away from the council's projection. This strategic forecasting behavior explains why the private sector performs worse than the council. This result is robust over time but splitting the private sector in different groups reveals that the forecasts of banks compared to research institutes deviate more from the council's forecast.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan-Christoph Rülke, 2011. "Do private sector forecasters desire to deviate from the German council of economic experts?," WHU Working Paper Series - Economics Group 11-04, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:whu:wpaper:11-04
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    File URL: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:992-opus4-4203
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Private Sector Forecasters; Herding; German Council of Economic Experts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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