Optimizing policymakers' loss functions in crisis prediction: before, within or after?

"Early-warning models most commonly optimize signaling thresholds on crisis probabilities. The ex-post threshold optimization is based upon a loss function accounting for preferences between forecast errors, but comes with two crucial drawbacks: unstable thresholds in recursive estimations and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sarlin, Peter, von Schweinitz, Gregor
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Frankfurt am Main 2017
ECB
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-753412457169-optimizing-policymakers-loss-f.htm
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author Sarlin, Peter
von Schweinitz, Gregor
author_facet Sarlin, Peter
von Schweinitz, Gregor
collection Library items
description "Early-warning models most commonly optimize signaling thresholds on crisis probabilities. The ex-post threshold optimization is based upon a loss function accounting for preferences between forecast errors, but comes with two crucial drawbacks: unstable thresholds in recursive estimations and an in-sample overfit at the expense of out-of-sample performance. We propose two alternatives for threshold setting: (i) including preferences in the estimation itself and (ii) setting thresholds ex-ante according to preferences only. Given probabilistic model output, it is intuitive that a decision rule is independent of the data or model specification, as thresholds on probabilities represent a willingness to issue a false alarm vis-à-vis missing a crisis. We provide simulated and real-world evidence that this simplification results in stable thresholds and improves out-of-sample performance. Our solution is not restricted to binary-choice models, but directly transferable to the signaling approach and all probabilistic early-warning models."
format TEXT
id 753412457169_90b7d47bf751407cacff67f253d2b9fc
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 753412457169_90b7d47bf751407cacff67f253d2b9fc
is_hierarchy_title Optimizing policymakers' loss functions in crisis prediction: before, within or after?
language English
physical 29 p.
Digital
publishDate 2017
publisher Frankfurt am Main
ECB
spellingShingle Sarlin, Peter
von Schweinitz, Gregor
economic forecast
economic policy
economic recession
Optimizing policymakers' loss functions in crisis prediction: before, within or after?
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=105346892352
title Optimizing policymakers' loss functions in crisis prediction: before, within or after?
topic economic forecast
economic policy
economic recession
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-753412457169-optimizing-policymakers-loss-f.htm