Economic Forecasting [Paperback]

Economic Forecasting provides a comprehensive overview of macroeconomic forecasting. The focus is first on a wide range of theories as well as empirical methods: business cycle analysis, time series methods, macroeconomic models, medium and long-run projections, fiscal and financial forecasts, and sectoral forecasting. In addition, the book addresses the main issues surrounding the use of forecasts (accuracy, communication challenges) and their policy implications. A tour of the economic data and forecasting institutions is also provided.Foreword by; J.-P. Cotis Introduction First Principles The Data Incoming News and Near-term Forecasting Time Series Methods Modelling Behaviour Macroeconomic Models Medium and Long-run Projections Financial and Commodity Markets Budget Forecasts Sectoral Forecasting Accuracy Using the Forecasts Communication Challenges A Tour of the Forecasting Institutions Epilogue

'Good economic forecasters are pragmatists. They combine intuition, based on experience, with time series evidence, with theory. Forget theory, and you lose internal consistency and become a bad story teller. Be a slave to theory, and you miss important developments because they do not fit. These skills are not taught in graduate school (they should). But they are taught in this remarkable book. Read it before you start forecasting.' - Olivier J. Blanchard, Economics Professor, MIT

'Economic Forecasting is accessible to anyone with a general background in economics, yet nuanced and state-of-the-art. It provides the complete toolkit needed by forecasters, with clear presentations of the technicalities and numerous up-to-date real-life exhibits. It vividly shows how economic analysis and decision processes interact.' - Jean-Philippe Cotis, OECD Chief Economist

'Speaking as a previous practitioner of this 'dark art' at the Bank of Canada, I found this book both useful and easy to read. Useful, because it reminded me almost effortll£¡