The accuracy of turning point predictions with leading indicators, like the Ifo Business Climate, depends in particular on the length and the stability of their leads against a reference cycle. Since there is no leading indicator with a one-to-one relationship to the reference cycle, it is...

In this paper, we make multi-step forecasts of the annual growth rates of the real GDP for each of the 16 German Länder (states) simultaneously. Beside the usual panel data models, such as pooled and fixed-effects models, we apply panel models that explicitly account for spatial dependence...

Die Studie beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung der Konjunktur in der EWU im Jahr 1999. Die Weltkonjunktur hatte im Laufe des Jahres 1999 an Dynamik gewonnen, die konjunkturelle Belebung in der EWU war stark durch außenwirtschaftliche Einflüsse geprägt. Die Rohstoffpreise und die...

This study utilizes the dynamic factor model of Giannone et al. (2008) in order to make now-/forecasts of GDP quarter-on-quarter growth rates in Switzerland. It also assesses the informational content of macroeconomic data releases for forecasting of the Swiss GDP. We find that the factor model...

We investigate whether the KOF Barometer–a leading indicator regularly released by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute–can be useful for short-term out-of-sample prediction of year-on-year quarterly real GDP growth rates in Switzerland. We find that the KOF Barometer appears to be useful for...