This paper considers the properties of the tests of the null hypothesis of a random walk against the alternative of a stochastic unit root when the data are generated by a process related to, but not exactly equal to, the processes under the null and alternative. The extensive Monte Carlo...

Volatility breaks are tested and documented for 19 important monthly macroeconomic time series across the G7 countries. Across all conditional mean specifications considered, including both linear and nonlinear models with and without a structural break, volatility breaks are found to be...

Macroeconomic forecasting is not an easy task, in particular if future growth rates are forecasted in real time. This paper compares various methods to predict the growth rate of US Industrial Production (IP) and of the Composite Coincident Index (CCI) of the Conference Board, over the coming...

This paper provides new evidence on the rationality of industrial production (IP) and the producer price index (PPI). However, rather than examining preliminary and fully revised data, as is usually the practice, we examine the entire revision history for each data series. Thus, we are able to...

This paper studies the economic development process, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for a large panel of countries. We propose a methodology that identifies groups of countries (convergence clubs) that show similar GDP structures, while allowing for changes in club memberships over...

This paper describes the components of the EICIE, the Econometric Institute Current Indicator of the Economy. This measure concerns quarterly and annual growth of Dutch real Gross Domestic Product. The key component of our real-time forecasting model for Dutch quarterly GDP is weekly staffing...

Econometric models for economic time series may include harmonic regressors to describe cyclical patterns in the data. This paper focuses on the possibility that the cycle periods in these regressors change over time. To this end, a smooth regime-switching harmonic regression is proposed, and a...

We analyze the behavior of experts who quote forecasts for monthlySKU-level sales data where we compare data before and after the momentthat experts received different kinds of feedback on their behavior. Wehave data for 21 experts located in as many countries who make SKUlevelforecasts for a...

In this paper we examine two hypotheses concerning emigration. The first hypothesis is that emigration is positively correlated with wage differentials. The second hypothesis concerns a positive correlation between emigration and higher education in the sending country (the so-called brain gain...

Experts can rely on statistical model forecasts when creating their own forecasts.Usually it is not known what experts actually do. In this paper we focus on threequestions, which we try to answer given the availability of expert forecasts andmodel forecasts. First, is the expert forecast...