Econometric Tools for Macroeconomic Forecasting and Simulation

The aim of this research group is to enhance research on, and development, implementation, evaluation, and application of quantitative macroeconometric models for forecasting and analysing aggregate economic fluctuations and developments. Research in this group contributes to the econometric foundation and the methodological improvements of the IWH forecasts. During the last years, the IWH has highly specialised in macroeconomic modelling, both for flash estimates and medium-term projections. Furthermore, this group conducts comprehensive empirical analysis and develops econometric tools that are used for third-party funded projects. In the last years, particular models have been developed for e.g. Volkswagen Financial Services AG and for GIZ. The research group contributed in particular on macroeconomic modelling for ministries in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as for the institute of forecasting and macroeconomic research (IFMR) Uzbekistan.

IWH Data Project: IWH Real-time Database

Research Cluster
Economic Dynamics and Stability

Your contact

Dr Katja Heinisch
Dr Katja Heinisch
Mitglied - Department Macroeconomics
Send Message +49 345 7753-836

EXTERNAL FUNDING

07.2022 ‐ 12.2026

Evaluation of the InvKG and the federal STARK programme

German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, the IWH and the RWI are evaluating the use of the approximately 40 billion euros the federal government is providing to support the coal phase-out regions..

See project page

Professor Dr Oliver Holtemöller

10.2019 ‐ 01.2023

Climate Resilient Economic Development

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Climate change has a substantial impact on economic growth and a country’s development. This increases the need for reliable and viable approaches to assessing the impact of climate risks and potential adaptation scenarios. Political decision-makers in ministries of planning and economy need sound forecasts in order to design and finance adequate economic policy instruments and actively to take countermeasures. In the pilot countries (Georgia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam), climate risk is included in macroeconomic modelling, enabling the results to be integrated into the policy process so as to facilitate adapted economic planning. The IWH team is responsible for macroeconomic modelling in Vietnam.

see project's page on GIZ website

Dr Katja Heinisch

05.2020 ‐ 09.2023

ENTRANCES: Energy Transitions from Coal and Carbon: Effects on Societies

European Commission

ENTRANCES aims at examining the effects of the coal phase-out in Europe. How does the phase-out transform society – and what can politics do about it?

see project's webpage

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 883947.

Professor Dr Oliver Holtemöller
Dr Katja Heinisch

01.2018 ‐ 12.2023

EuropeAid (EU Framework Contract)

European Commission

Professor Dr Oliver Holtemöller

07.2016 ‐ 12.2018

Climate Protection and Coal Phaseout: Political Strategies and Measures up to 2030 and beyond

Umweltbundesamt (UBA)

Dr Katja Heinisch

01.2017 ‐ 12.2017

Support to Sustainable Economic Development in Selected Regions of Uzbekistan

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Dr Andrej Drygalla

01.2017 ‐ 12.2017

Short-term Macroeconomic Forecasting Model in Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Dr Andrej Drygalla

01.2016 ‐ 12.2017

Development of analytical tools based on Input-Output table

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

The aim of the project was the development of an analytical tool to assess the gains and losses of possible state programs supporting the development of the private sector of the Tajik economy.

Dr Katja Heinisch

11.2015 ‐ 12.2016

Employment and Development in the Republic of Uzbekistan

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Support to sustainable economic development in selected regions of Uzbekistan

Dr Katja Heinisch

05.2016 ‐ 05.2016

Framework and Finance for Private Sector Development in Tajikistan

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Dr Katja Heinisch

02.2016 ‐ 04.2016

Macroeconomic Reforms and Green Growth - Assessment of economic modelling capacity in Vietnam

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Dr Katja Heinisch

Refereed Publications

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Epidemics in the New Keynesian Model

Martin S. Eichenbaum Sergio Rebelo Mathias Trabandt

in: Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, July 2022

Abstract

This paper documents the behavior of key macro aggregates in the wake of the Covid epidemic. We show that a unique feature of the Covid recession is that the peak-to-trough decline is roughly the same for consumption, investment, and output. In contrast to the 2008 recession, there was only a short-lived rise in financial stress that quickly subsided. Finally, there was mild deflation between the peak and the trough of the Covid recession. We argue that a New Keynesian model that explicitly incorporates epidemic dynamics captures these qualitative features of the Covid recession. A key feature of the model is that Covid acts like a negative shock to the demand for consumption and the supply of labor.

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Inequality in Life and Death

Martin S. Eichenbaum Sergio Rebelo Mathias Trabandt

in: IMF Economic Review, March 2022

Abstract

We argue that the COVID epidemic disproportionately affected the economic well-being and health of poor people. To disentangle the forces that generated this outcome, we construct a model that is consistent with the heterogeneous impact of the COVID recession on low- and high-income people. According to our model, two-thirds of the inequality in COVID deaths reflect preexisting inequality in comorbidity rates and access to quality health care. The remaining third stems from the fact that low-income people work in occupations where the risk of infection is high. Our model also implies that the rise in income inequality generated by the COVID epidemic reflects the nature of the goods that low-income people produce. Finally, we assess the health-income trade-offs associated with fiscal transfers to the poor and mandatory containment policies.

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Resolving the Missing Deflation Puzzle

Martín Harding Jesper Lindé Mathias Trabandt

in: Journal of Monetary Economics, March 2022

Abstract

A resolution of the missing deflation puzzle is proposed. Our resolution stresses the importance of nonlinearities in price- and wage-setting when the economy is exposed to large shocks. We show that a nonlinear macroeconomic model with real rigidities resolves the missing deflation puzzle, while a linearized version of the same underlying nonlinear model fails to do so. In addition, our nonlinear model reproduces the skewness of inflation and other macroeconomic variables observed in post-war U.S. data. All told, our results caution against the common practice of using linearized models to study inflation and output dynamics.

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Power Generation and Structural Change: Quantifying Economic Effects of the Coal Phase-out in Germany

Katja Heinisch Oliver Holtemöller Christoph Schult

in: Energy Economics, 2021

Abstract

In the fight against global warming, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a major objective. In particular, a decrease in electricity generation by coal could contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. We study potential economic consequences of a coal phase-out in Germany, using a multi-region dynamic general equilibrium model. Four regional phase-out scenarios before the end of 2040 are simulated. We find that the worst case phase-out scenario would lead to an increase in the aggregate unemployment rate by about 0.13 [0.09 minimum; 0.18 maximum] percentage points from 2020 to 2040. The effect on regional unemployment rates varies between 0.18 [0.13; 0.22] and 1.07 [1.00; 1.13] percentage points in the lignite regions. A faster coal phase-out can lead to a faster recovery. The coal phase-out leads to migration from German lignite regions to German non-lignite regions and reduces the labour force in the lignite regions by 10,100 [6300; 12,300] people by 2040. A coal phase-out until 2035 is not worse in terms of welfare, consumption and employment compared to a coal-exit until 2040.

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(Since when) are East and West German Business Cycles Synchronised?

Stefan Gießler Katja Heinisch Oliver Holtemöller

in: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, No. 1, 2021

Abstract

We analyze whether, and since when, East and West German business cycles are synchronised. We investigate real GDP, unemployment rates and survey data as business cycle indicators and we employ several empirical methods. Overall, we find that the regional business cycles have synchronised over time. GDP-based indicators and survey data show a higher degree of synchronisation than the indicators based on unemployment rates. However, synchronisation among East and West German business cycles seems to have become weaker again recently.

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Working Papers

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Disentangling Covid-19, Economic Mobility, and Containment Policy Shocks

Annika Camehl Malte Rieth

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 2, 2021

Abstract

We study the dynamic impact of Covid-19, economic mobility, and containment policy shocks. We use Bayesian panel structural vector autoregressions with daily data for 44 countries, identified through sign and zero restrictions. Incidence and mobility shocks raise cases and deaths significantly for two months. Restrictive policy shocks lower mobility immediately, cases after one week, and deaths after three weeks. Non-pharmaceutical interventions explain half of the variation in mobility, cases, and deaths worldwide. These flattened the pandemic curve, while deepening the global mobility recession. The policy tradeoff is 1 p.p. less mobility per day for 9% fewer deaths after two months.

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Exchange Rates and the Information Channel of Monetary Policy

Oliver Holtemöller Alexander Kriwoluzky Boreum Kwak

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 17, 2020

Abstract

We disentangle the effects of monetary policy announcements on real economic variables into an interest rate shock component and a central bank information shock component. We identify both components using changes in interest rate futures and in exchange rates around monetary policy announcements. While the volatility of interest rate surprises declines around the Great Recession, the volatility of exchange rate changes increases. Making use of this heteroskedasticity, we estimate that a contractionary interest rate shock appreciates the dollar, increases the excess bond premium, and leads to a decline in prices and output, while a positive information shock appreciates the dollar, decreases prices and the excess bond premium, and increases output.

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Integrated Assessment of Epidemic and Economic Dynamics

Oliver Holtemöller

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 4, 2020

Abstract

In this paper, a simple integrated model for the joint assessment of epidemic and economic dynamics is developed. The model can be used to discuss mitigation policies like shutdown and testing. Since epidemics cause output losses due to a reduced labor force, temporarily reducing economic activity in order to prevent future losses can be welfare enhancing. Mitigation policies help to keep the number of people requiring intensive medical care below the capacity of the health system. The optimal policy is a mixture of temporary partial shutdown and intensive testing and isolation of infectious persons for an extended period of time.

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How Forecast Accuracy Depends on Conditioning Assumptions

Carola Engelke Katja Heinisch Christoph Schult

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 18, 2019

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which errors in economic forecasts are driven by initial assumptions that prove to be incorrect ex post. Therefore, we construct a new data set comprising an unbalanced panel of annual forecasts from different institutions forecasting German GDP and the underlying assumptions. We explicitly control for different forecast horizons to proxy the information available at the release date. Over 75% of squared errors of the GDP forecast comove with the squared errors in their underlying assumptions. The root mean squared forecast error for GDP in our regression sample of 1.52% could be reduced to 1.13% by setting all assumption errors to zero. This implies that the accuracy of the assumptions is of great importance and that forecasters should reveal the framework of their assumptions in order to obtain useful policy recommendations based on economic forecasts.

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Progressive Tax-like Effects of Inflation: Fact or Myth? The U.S. Post-war Experience

Matthias Wieschemeyer Bernd Süssmuth

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 33, 2017

Abstract

Inflation and earnings growth can push some tax payers into higher brackets in the absence of inflation-indexed schedules. Moreover, inflation may affect the composition of individuals’ income sources. As a result, depending on the relative tax burden of labour and capital, inflation may decrease or increase the difference between before-tax and after-tax income. However, whether some and if so which percentiles of the income distribution net benefit from inflation via taxation is a widely unexplored question. We make use of a novel dataset on U.S. pre-tax and post-tax income distribution series provided by Pike ty et al. (2018) for the years 1962 to 2014 to answer this question. To this end, we estimate local projections to quantify dynamic effects. We find that inflation shocks increase progressivity of taxation not only contemporaneously but also with some repercussion of several years after the shock. While particularly the bottom two quintiles gain in share, it is not the top but the fourth quintile that lastingly loses.

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