A Model Selection Approach to Real-Time Macroeconomic Forecasting Using Linear Models and Artificial Neural Networks
Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 79, No. 4, November 1997
Posted: 22 Mar 1998
Abstract
We take a model selection approach to the question of whether a class of adaptive prediction models (artificial neural networks) is useful for predicting future values of nine macroeconomic variables. We use a variety of out-of-sample forecast-based model selection criteria, including forecast error measures and forecast direction accuracy. Ex-ante or real-time forecasting results based on rolling window prediction methods indicate that multivariate adaptive linear vector autoregression models often outperform a variety of (1) adaptive and non-adaptive univariate models, (2) non-adaptive multivariate models, (3) adaptive nonlinear models, and (4) professionally available survey predictions. Further, model selection based on the in-sample Schwarz information criterion apparently fails to offer a convenient shortcut to true out-of-sample performance measures.
JEL Classification: C53, E37
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation