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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Should Forecasters Use Real‐time Data to Evaluate Leading Indicator Models for GDP Prediction? German Evidence

Katja Heinisch Rolf Scheufele

in: German Economic Review, No. 4, 2019

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate whether differences exist among forecasts using real‐time or latest‐available data to predict gross domestic product (GDP). We employ mixed‐frequency models and real‐time data to reassess the role of surveys and financial data relative to industrial production and orders in Germany. Although we find evidence that forecast characteristics based on real‐time and final data releases differ, we also observe minimal impacts on the relative forecasting performance of indicator models. However, when obtaining the optimal combination of soft and hard data, the use of final release data may understate the role of survey information.

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Expectation Formation, Financial Frictions, and Forecasting Performance of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models

Oliver Holtemöller Christoph Schult

in: Historical Social Research, No. 2, Special Issue: Governing by Numbers 2019

Abstract

In this paper, we document the forecasting performance of estimated basic dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models and compare this to extended versions which consider alternative expectation formation assumptions and financial frictions. We also show how standard model features, such as price and wage rigidities, contribute to forecasting performance. It turns out that neither alternative expectation formation behaviour nor financial frictions can systematically increase the forecasting performance of basic DSGE models. Financial frictions improve forecasts only during periods of financial crises. However, traditional price and wage rigidities systematically help to increase the forecasting performance.

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For How Long Do IMF Forecasts of World Economic Growth Stay Up-to-date?

Katja Heinisch Axel Lindner

in: Applied Economics Letters, No. 3, 2019

Abstract

This study analyses the performance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook output forecasts for the world and for both the advanced economies and the emerging and developing economies. With a focus on the forecast for the current year and the next year, we examine the durability of IMF forecasts, looking at how much time has to pass so that IMF forecasts can be improved by using leading indicators with monthly updates. Using a real-time data set for GDP and for indicators, we find that some simple single-indicator forecasts on the basis of data that are available at higher frequency can significantly outperform the IMF forecasts as soon as the publication of the IMF’s Outlook is only a few months old. In particular, there is an obvious gain using leading indicators from January to March for the forecast of the current year.

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Should We Use Linearized Models To Calculate Fiscal Multipliers?

Jesper Lindé Mathias Trabandt

in: Journal of Applied Econometrics, No. 7, 2018

Abstract

We calculate the magnitude of the government consumption multiplier in linearized and nonlinear solutions of a New Keynesian model at the zero lower bound. Importantly, the model is amended with real rigidities to simultaneously account for the macroeconomic evidence of a low Phillips curve slope and the microeconomic evidence of frequent price changes. We show that the nonlinear solution is associated with a much smaller multiplier than the linearized solution in long-lived liquidity traps, and pin down the key features in the model which account for the di¤erence. Our results caution against the common practice of using linearized models to calculate scal multipliers in long-lived liquidity traps.

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On DSGE Models

Lawrence J. Christiano Martin S. Eichenbaum Mathias Trabandt

in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, No. 3, 2018

Abstract

The outcome of any important macroeconomic policy change is the net effect of forces operating on different parts of the economy. A central challenge facing policymakers is how to assess the relative strength of those forces. Economists have a range of tools that can be used to make such assessments. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are the leading tool for making such assessments in an open and transparent manner. We review the state of mainstream DSGE models before the financial crisis and the Great Recession. We then describe how DSGE models are estimated and evaluated. We address the question of why DSGE modelers—like most other economists and policymakers—failed to predict the financial crisis and the Great Recession, and how DSGE modelers responded to the financial crisis and its aftermath. We discuss how current DSGE models are actually used by policymakers. We then provide a brief response to some criticisms of DSGE models, with special emphasis on criticism by Joseph Stiglitz, and offer some concluding remarks.

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Working Papers

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The Effects of the Iberian Exception Mechanism on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Consumer Inflation: A Synthetic-controls Approach

Miguel Haro Ruiz Christoph Schult Christoph Wunder

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 5, 2024

Abstract

This study employs synthetic control methods to estimate the effect of the Iberian exception mechanism on wholesale electricity prices and consumer inflation, for both Spain and Portugal. We find that the intervention led to an average reduction of approximately 40% in the spot price of electricity between July 2022 and June 2023 in both Spain and Portugal. Regarding overall inflation, we observe notable differences between the two countries. In Spain, the intervention has an immediate effect, and results in an average decrease of 3.5 percentage points over the twelve months under consideration. In Portugal, however, the impact is small and generally close to zero. Different electricity market structures in each country are a plausible explanation.

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Is Risk the Fuel of the Business Cycle? Financial Frictions and Oil Market Disturbances

Christoph Schult

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 4, 2024

Abstract

I estimate a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for the United States that incorporates oil market shocks and risk shocks working through credit market frictions. The findings of this analysis indicate that risk shocks play a crucial role during the Great Recession and the Dot-Com bubble but not during other economic downturns. Credit market frictions do not amplify persistent oil market shocks. This result holds as long as entry and exit rates of entrepreneurs are independent of the business cycle.

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Expectations, Infections, and Economic Activity

Martin S. Eichenbaum Miguel Godinho de Matos Francisco Lima Sergio Rebelo Mathias Trabandt

in: NBER Working Paper, No. 27988, April 2022

Abstract

The Covid epidemic had a large impact on economic activity. In contrast, the dramatic decline in mortality from infectious diseases over the past 120 years had a small economic impact. We argue that people's response to successive Covid waves helps reconcile these two findings. Our analysis uses a unique administrative data set with anonymized monthly expenditures at the individual level that covers the first three Covid waves. Consumer expenditures fell by about the same amount in the first and third waves, even though the risk of getting infected was larger in the third wave. We find that people had pessimistic prior beliefs about the case-fatality rates that converged over time to the true case-fatality rates. Using a model where Covid is endemic, we show that the impact of Covid is small when people know the true case-fatality rate but large when people have empirically-plausible pessimistic prior beliefs about the case-fatality rate. These results reconcile the large economic impact of Covid with the small effect of the secular decline in mortality from infectious diseases estimated in the literature.

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Economic Sentiment: Disentangling Private Information from Public Knowledge

Katja Heinisch Axel Lindner

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 15, 2021

Abstract

This paper addresses a general problem with the use of surveys as source of information about the state of an economy: Answers to surveys are highly dependent on information that is publicly available, while only additional information that is not already publicly known has the potential to improve a professional forecast. We propose a simple procedure to disentangle the private information of agents from knowledge that is already publicly known for surveys that ask for general as well as for private prospects. Our results reveal the potential of our proposed technique for the usage of European Commissions‘ consumer surveys for economic forecasting for Germany.

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Conditional Macroeconomic Forecasts: Disagreement, Revisions and Forecast Errors

Alexander Glas Katja Heinisch

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 7, 2021

Abstract

Using data from the European Central Bank‘s Survey of Professional Forecasters, we analyse the role of ex-ante conditioning variables for macroeconomic forecasts. In particular, we test to which extent the heterogeneity, updating and ex-post performance of predictions for inflation, real GDP growth and the unemployment rate are related to assumptions about future oil prices, exchange rates, interest rates and wage growth. Our findings indicate that inflation forecasts are closely associated with oil price expectations, whereas expected interest rates are used primarily to predict output growth and unemployment. Expectations about exchange rates and wage growth also matter for macroeconomic forecasts, albeit less so than oil prices and interest rates. We show that survey participants can considerably improve forecast accuracy for macroeconomic outcomes by reducing prediction errors for external conditions. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the expectation formation process of experts.

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