IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apfiec/v17y2007i18p1469-1478.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving the accuracy of forward exchange rate forecasts by correcting for prior bias

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Kremer
  • Sherrill Shaffer

Abstract

Using several samples of forward exchange rate forecasts for the British pound vs. the US dollar, this article explores the post-sample predictive performance of adjusting the forecasts for recent empirical bias. Numerical accuracy is assessed via both parametric and nonparametric tests, and directional properties are also evaluated. The evidence suggests that simple linear adjustments can yield significant improvements in predictive accuracy, even if the measured bias in the original forecasts is not statistically significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Kremer & Sherrill Shaffer, 2007. "Improving the accuracy of forward exchange rate forecasts by correcting for prior bias," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(18), pages 1469-1478.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:apfiec:v:17:y:2007:i:18:p:1469-1478
    DOI: 10.1080/09603100601007164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09603100601007164
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09603100601007164?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agmon, Tamir & Amihud, Yakov, 1981. "The forward exchange rate and the prediction of the future spot rate: Empirical evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 425-437, September.
    2. Sherrill Shaffer, 2003. "Using prior bias to improve forecast accuracy," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(8), pages 459-461.
    3. Fernandez-Rodriguez, Fernando & Sosvilla-Rivero, Simon & Andrada-Felix, Julian, 1999. "Exchange-rate forecasts with simultaneous nearest-neighbour methods: evidence from the EMS," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 383-392, October.
    4. Trueman, Brett, 1994. "Analyst Forecasts and Herding Behavior," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 97-124.
    5. Galatin, Malcolm, 1976. "Optimal Forecasting in Models with Uncertainty when the Outcome is Influenced by the Forecast," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(342), pages 278-295, June.
    6. Swarna Dutt & Dipak Ghosh, 1999. "A note on the foreign exchange market efficiency hypothesis," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 23(2), pages 157-161, June.
    7. Chiang, Thomas C, 1988. "The Forward Rate as a Predictor of the Future Spot Rate--A Stochastic Coefficient Approach," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 20(2), pages 212-232, May.
    8. Armstrong, J. Scott, 1989. "Combining forecasts: The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 585-588.
    9. Figlewski, Stephen & Wachtel, Paul, 1981. "The Formation of Inflationary Expectations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-10, February.
    10. Dudley, L., 1986. "Explaining Forecasting Bias: the Case of Real Exchange Rate Variance," Cahiers de recherche 8659, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    11. Michael P. Keane & David E. Runkle, 1998. "Are Financial Analysts' Forecasts of Corporate Profits Rational?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 768-805, August.
    12. F. FernAndez-RodrIguez & S. Sosvilla-Rivero & J. Andrada-FElix, 2003. "Technical analysis in foreign exchange markets: evidence from the EMS," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 113-122.
    13. Clemen, Robert T., 1989. "Combining forecasts: A review and annotated bibliography," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 559-583.
    14. Tilman Ehrbeck & Robert Waldmann, 1996. "Why Are Professional Forecasters Biased? Agency versus Behavioral Explanations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(1), pages 21-40.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Debrah Meloso & Salvatore Nunnari & Marco Ottaviani, 2023. "Looking into Crystal Balls: A Laboratory Experiment on Reputational Cheap Talk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(9), pages 5112-5127, September.
    2. Zitzewitz, Eric, 2001. "Measuring Herding and Exaggeration by Equity Analysts and Other Opinion Sellers," Research Papers 1802, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    3. Loffler, Gunter, 1998. "Biases in analyst forecasts: cognitive, strategic or second-best?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 261-275, June.
    4. Ottaviani, Marco & Sorensen, Peter Norman, 2006. "The strategy of professional forecasting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 441-466, August.
    5. Marinovic, Iván & Ottaviani, Marco & Sorensen, Peter, 2013. "Forecasters’ Objectives and Strategies," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 690-720, Elsevier.
    6. Friesen, Geoffrey & Weller, Paul A., 2006. "Quantifying cognitive biases in analyst earnings forecasts," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 333-365, November.
    7. Graham Elliott & Ivana Komunjer & Allan Timmermann, 2008. "Biases in Macroeconomic Forecasts: Irrationality or Asymmetric Loss?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(1), pages 122-157, March.
    8. Reyes Maroto Illera & Francisco Pérez Bermejo & Simón Sosvilla-Rivero, "undated". "An Eclectic Approach to Currency Crises: Drawing Lessons from the EMS Experience," Working Papers 2002-22, FEDEA.
    9. Andrada-Félix Julián & Fernadez-Rodriguez Fernando & Garcia-Artiles Maria-Dolores & Sosvilla-Rivero Simon, 2003. "An Empirical Evaluation of Non-Linear Trading Rules," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(3), pages 1-32, October.
    10. Graham Elliott & Allan Timmermann, 2016. "Economic Forecasting," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10740.
    11. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    12. Bernhardt, Dan & Campello, Murillo & Kutsoati, Edward, 2006. "Who herds?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 657-675, June.
    13. repec:lan:wpaper:470 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Karine Bouthevillain, 1993. "La prévision macro-économique : précision relative et consensus," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 108(2), pages 97-126.
    15. S. Sosvilla-Rivero & R. Maroto-Illera, 2003. "Regimen changes and duration in the European Monetary System," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(18), pages 1923-1933.
    16. Martin Wallmeier, 2005. "Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts for DAX100 Firms During the Stock Market Boom of the 1990s," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 19(2), pages 131-151, August.
    17. Eric Zitzewitz, 2006. "Nationalism in Winter Sports Judging and Its Lessons for Organizational Decision Making," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 67-99, March.
    18. Dovern, Jonas & Jannsen, Nils, 2017. "Systematic errors in growth expectations over the business cycle," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 760-769.
    19. Paul Bennett & In Sun Geoum & David S. Laster, 1997. "Rational bias in macroeconomic forecasts," Staff Reports 21, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    20. Bonham, Carl S & Cohen, Richard H, 2001. "To Aggregate, Pool, or Neither: Testing the Rational-Expectations Hypothesis Using Survey Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(3), pages 278-291, July.
    21. Jordi Pons-Novell, 2003. "Strategic bias, herding behaviour and economic forecasts," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 67-77.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:apfiec:v:17:y:2007:i:18:p:1469-1478. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAFE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.