The aim of this paper is to make a comparison between survey and time series-based estimates of capacity utilization for the Italian manufacturing sector. The comparison is focused on the actual economic crisis. Two kinds of empirical evaluation are implemented: the ability of the series to...

We use data generated by a macroeconomic DSGE model to study the relative benefits of forecast combinations based on forecast-encompassing tests relative to simple uniformly weighted forecast averages across rival models. Assumed rival models are four linear autoregressive specifications, one of...

This paper proposes a strategy to increase the efficiency of forecast combining methods. Given the availability of a wide range of forecasting models for the same variable of interest, our goal is to apply combining methods to a restricted set of models. To this aim, an algorithm procedure based...