Time-series analysis of weekly initial claims over 1967–2012 reveal the following: (1) Initial claims are highly seasonal and cyclical, but do not follow a specific trend. Seasonality follows a “W” pattern over the 52 week period. (2) Initial claims are subject to conditional volatility...

The recent deregulation of the electricity industry and reliance on competitive wholesale markets has generated significant volatility in wholesale electricity prices. Given the importance of short-term price forecasts in this new environment, this paper estimates and evaluates the forecasting...