Electricity price forecasting has become an area of increasing relevance in recent years. Despite the growing interest in predictive algorithms, the challenges are difficult to overcome given the restricted access to relevant data series and the lack of accurate metrics. Multiple models have...

This paper investigates whether augmenting models with the variance risk premium (VRP) and Google search data improves the quality of the forecasts for real oil prices. We considered a time sample of monthly data from 2007 to 2019 that includes several episodes of high volatility in the oil...

This paper uses structured machine learning regressions for nowcasting with panel data consisting of series sampled at different frequencies. Motivated by the problem of predicting corporate earnings for a large cross-section of firms with macroeconomic, financial, and news time series sampled...

We examine the relationship between exchange rates and macroeconomic fundamentals using a two-step maximum likelihood estimator through which we compute time-varying factor loadings. Factors are obtained as principal components, extracted from vintage macro-datasets that combine FRED-MD and OECD...

This paper outlines a strategic plan for the development of the fourth generation of Bank of Canada projection and policy analysis models. The plan features a new Canadian workhorse macroeconomic model as well as a suite of alternative models to better support a risk management approach to...

We provide a versatile nowcasting toolbox that supports three model classes (dynamic factor models, large Bayesian VAR, bridge equations) and offers methods to manage data selection and adjust for Covid-19 observations. The toolbox aims at simplifying two key tasks: creating new nowcasting...

Predictive power has always been the main research focus of learning algorithms with the goal of minimizing the test error for supervised classification and regression problems. While the general approach for these algorithms is to consider all possible attributes in a dataset to best predict...

This paper introduces structured machine learning regressions for prediction and nowcasting with panel data consisting of series sampled at different frequencies. Motivated by the empirical problem of predicting corporate earnings for a large cross-section of firms with macroeconomic, financial,...

Measuring bias is important as it helps identify flaws in quantitative forecasting methods or judgmental forecasts. It can, therefore, potentially help improve forecasts. Despite this, bias tends to be under represented in the literature: many studies focus solely on measuring accuracy. Methods...

The accuracy of variance prediction depends on both the specification and the accuracy of parameter estimation. To predict stock return variance in a large and ever-changing universe, this paper proposes to replace the classic time-series dynamics specification per each name with a...