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Out-of-Sample Forecasting of Unemployment Rates with Pooled STVECM Forecasts

Author

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  • Costas Milas

    (Keele University, UK and The Rimini Centre for Economics Analysis, Italy)

  • Philip Rothman

    (East Carolina University, USA)

Abstract

In this paper we use smooth transition vector error-correction models (STVECMs) in a simulated out-of-sample forecasting experiment for the unemployment rates of the four non-Euro G-7 countries, the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Japan. For the U.S., pooled forecasts constructed by taking the median value across the point forecasts generated by the linear and STVECM forecasts appear to perform better than the linear AR(p) benchmark more so during business cycle expansions. Such pooling also tends to lead to statistically significant forecast improvement for the U.K. ÒReality checksÓ of these results suggest that they do not stem from data snooping.

Suggested Citation

  • Costas Milas & Philip Rothman, 2007. "Out-of-Sample Forecasting of Unemployment Rates with Pooled STVECM Forecasts," Working Paper series 49_07, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:49_07
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    17. Ubilava, David & Helmers, Claes Gustav, 2011. "The ENSO Impact on Predicting World Cocoa Prices," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103528, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Elena Olmedo, 2014. "Forecasting Spanish Unemployment Using Near Neighbour and Neural Net Techniques," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 183-197, February.
    19. Regis Barnichon & Christopher J. Nekarda, 2012. "The Ins and Outs of Forecasting Unemployment: Using Labor Force Flows to Forecast the Labor Market," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 43(2 (Fall)), pages 83-131.
    20. Muneeb Ahmad & Yousaf Ali Khan & Chonghui Jiang & Syed Jawad Haider Kazmi & Syed Zaheer Abbas, 2023. "The impact of COVID‐19 on unemployment rate: An intelligent based unemployment rate prediction in selected countries of Europe," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 528-543, January.
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