We reconsider the out-of-sample forecasting ability of a large number of financial variables with respect to real output growth over the 1985:1--1999:4 period. We show that models including financial variables display almost no forecasting ability relative to an autoregressive benchmark model...

Previous studies argue that financial variables do not help forecast U.S. output growth. F statistics for excluding financial variables from output growth equations depend on the sample period and the inclusion of 1974:12 in the sample. Also, an autoregressive model of output growth often...