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Evaluating the Efficiency of the FOMC's New Economic Projections

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  • NATSUKI ARAI

Abstract

Since 2007, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policymakers have been publishing detailed numerical projections of macroeconomic series over the next 3 years. By testing whether the revisions to these projections are unpredictable, I find that FOMC's efficiency is generally accepted for inflation but often rejected for real economic variables, notably for the unemployment rate. The rejection is due to the strong autocorrelation of revisions, which may reflect information rigidity of FOMC's unemployment projections. The joint efficiency of the entire projection is accepted in most cases.

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  • Natsuki Arai, 2016. "Evaluating the Efficiency of the FOMC's New Economic Projections," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(5), pages 1019-1049, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:48:y:2016:i:5:p:1019-1049
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.12325
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    Cited by:

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    2. Andrew C. Chang & Trace J. Levinson, 2020. "Raiders of the Lost High-Frequency Forecasts: New Data and Evidence on the Efficiency of the Fed's Forecasting," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2020-090, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Aguiar-Conraria, Luís & Martins, Manuel M.F. & Soares, Maria Joana, 2020. "Okun’s Law across time and frequencies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. Eleonora Granziera & Pirkka Jalasjoki & Maritta Paloviita, 2021. "The Bias and Efficiency of the ECB Inflation Projections: a State Dependent Analysis," Working Paper 2021/1, Norges Bank.
    5. S. Yanki Kalfa & Jaime Marquez, 2021. "Forecasting FOMC Forecasts," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-21, September.
      • S. Yanki Kalfa & Jaime Marquez, 2018. "Forecasting FOMC Forecasts," Working Papers 2018-007, The George Washington University, Department of Economics, H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting.
    6. Messina, Jeffrey D. & Sinclair, Tara M. & Stekler, Herman, 2015. "What can we learn from revisions to the Greenbook forecasts?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 54-62.
    7. Jaime Marquez & S Yanki Kalfa, 2021. "The Forecasts of Individual FOMC Members: New Evidence after Ten Years," Working Papers 2021-003, The George Washington University, Department of Economics, H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting.
    8. S. Yanki Kalfa & Jaime Marquez, 2019. "FOMC Forecasts: Are They Useful for Understanding Monetary Policy?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, August.
    9. Granziera, Eleonora & Jalasjoki, Pirkka & Paloviita, Maritta, 2021. "The bias and efficiency of the ECB inflation projections: a State dependent analysis," Research Discussion Papers 7/2021, Bank of Finland.
    10. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2021_007 is not listed on IDEAS

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