Bayesian inference requires an analyst to set priors. Setting the right prior is crucial for precise forecasts. This paper analyzes how optimal prior changes when an economy is hit by a recession. For this task, an autoregressive distributed lag model is chosen. The results show that a sharp...

This paper critically assesses the practice of band-pass filtering (the non-structural, frequency-domain based decomposition of economic time series into trend and cyclical components), making two main points. First, it is shown that: (a) depending on the stochastic properties of the filtered...