This paper analyses the forecasting ability of economic summary indicators in EU economies. We employ the use of Partial Least Squares and Bayesian Shrinkage Regression methods and we predict the growth rates of quarterly GDP and Consumption and monthly Industrial Production. We find evidence...

This paper investigates the performance of Financial Condition Indexes (FCIs) in forecasting four key macroeconomic variables of EU economies. A wide range of carefully selected financial indicators include Rates and Spreads, Stock Market Indicators and Macroeconomic Quantities. The results...

Factor based forecasting has been at the forefront of developments in the macroeconometric forecasting literature in the recent past. Despite the flurry of activity in the area, a number of specification issues such as the choice of the number of factors in the forecasting regression, the...

Detection of structural change is a critical empirical activity, but continuous 'monitoring' of time series for structural changes in real time raises well-known econometric issues. These have been explored in a univariate context. If multiple series co-break, as may be plausible, then it is...

The paper provides a proof of consistency of the ridge estimator for regressions where the number of regressors tends to infinity. Such result is obtained without assuming a factor structure. A Monte Carlo study suggests that shrinkage autoregressive models can lead to very substantial...