Pub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.05.002
Dieter Stiers, Marc Hooghe
There is a vast literature on determinants of electoral turnout that allows us to forecast which groups of the population will turn out to vote and which will not. Here we report on a rather unique forecasting experiment at the individual level. In June 2024, elections were held in Belgium with compulsory voting. In October 2024, another election was held, but this time without compulsory voting. Simultaneously, a panel survey was conducted, spanning from April to November 2024. The information in the first two waves of the panel were used to forecast the likelihood of individual respondents turning out again in October, which we preregistered. The forecasting models were indeed successful in predicting who would turn out to vote, but they tended to give relatively elevated turnout likelihood scores to non-voters. The prediction models tended to underestimate the effect of political interest in explaining actual electoral turnout.
{"title":"Is it possible to predict electoral abstention on the individual level? A preregistered test on forecasting the effects of abolishing compulsory voting in Belgium","authors":"Dieter Stiers, Marc Hooghe","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.05.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.05.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is a vast literature on determinants of electoral turnout that allows us to forecast which groups of the population will turn out to vote and which will not. Here we report on a rather unique forecasting experiment at the individual level. In June 2024, elections were held in Belgium with compulsory voting. In October 2024, another election was held, but this time <em>without</em> compulsory voting. Simultaneously, a panel survey was conducted, spanning from April to November 2024. The information in the first two waves of the panel were used to forecast the likelihood of individual respondents turning out again in October, which we preregistered. The forecasting models were indeed successful in predicting who would turn out to vote, but they tended to give relatively elevated turnout likelihood scores to non-voters. The prediction models tended to underestimate the effect of political interest in explaining actual electoral turnout.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 99-111"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.001
Zane Hassoun, Niall MacKay, Ben Powell
We present a new method, ‘kairosis’, for aggregating probability forecasts made over a time period of a single outcome determined at the end of that period. Informed by work on Bayesian change-point detection, we begin by constructing for each time during the period a posterior probability that the forecasts before and after this time are distributed differently. The resulting posterior probability mass function is integrated to give a cumulative mass function, which is used to create a weighted median forecast. The effect is to construct an aggregate in which the most heavily weighted forecasts are those which have been made since the probable most recent change in the forecasts’ distribution. Kairosis outperforms standard methods, and is especially suitable for geopolitical forecasting tournaments because it is observed to be robust across disparate questions and forecaster distributions.
{"title":"Kairosis: A method for dynamical probability forecast aggregation informed by Bayesian change-point detection","authors":"Zane Hassoun, Niall MacKay, Ben Powell","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span><span>We present a new method, ‘kairosis’, for aggregating probability forecasts made over a </span>time period of a single outcome determined at the end of that period. Informed by work on </span>Bayesian<span> change-point detection, we begin by constructing for each time during the period a posterior probability<span> that the forecasts before and after this time are distributed differently. The resulting posterior probability mass function<span> is integrated to give a cumulative mass function, which is used to create a weighted median forecast. The effect is to construct an aggregate in which the most heavily weighted forecasts are those which have been made since the probable most recent change in the forecasts’ distribution. Kairosis outperforms standard methods, and is especially suitable for geopolitical forecasting tournaments because it is observed to be robust across disparate questions and forecaster distributions.</span></span></span></div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 112-125"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-30DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.004
Alan Kirman , Angus Armstrong , William Hynes
This paper takes the Court of the Bank of England’s Terms of Reference for the Bernanke Review seriously. We explore the underlying issue of radical uncertainty and what this means for forecasting and monetary policy-making. The only logical way to proceed is to embrace Bernanke’s suggestion that we engage ‘alternative modelling frameworks’. What might these be? We need a combination of different types of models, some with closed equilibrium solutions and others that rely on simulations that can provide different insights into what is happening in the economy. The old saying that ‘it takes a model to beat a model’ is just that. We now know that Agent Based Models can perform at least as well as equilibrium models, even on the latter’s own narrow criteria, despite the fraction of resources used in their development. If the Bank is to serve its mission of ‘promoting the good of the people of the UK’ it must start by accepting reality and not limiting itself to a single model framework as if it will somehow deliver ‘the truth’ if only it had more resources.
{"title":"Forecasting and policy when “we simply do not know”","authors":"Alan Kirman , Angus Armstrong , William Hynes","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper takes the Court of the Bank of England’s Terms of Reference for the Bernanke Review seriously. We explore the underlying issue of radical uncertainty and what this means for forecasting and monetary policy-making. The only logical way to proceed is to embrace Bernanke’s suggestion that we engage ‘alternative modelling frameworks’. What might these be? We need a combination of different types of models, some with closed equilibrium solutions and others that rely on simulations that can provide different insights into what is happening in the economy. The old saying that ‘it takes a model to beat a model’ is just that. We now know that Agent Based Models can perform at least as well as equilibrium models, even on the latter’s own narrow criteria, despite the fraction of resources used in their development. If the Bank is to serve its mission of ‘promoting the good of the people of the UK’ it must start by accepting reality and not limiting itself to a single model framework as if it will somehow deliver ‘the truth’ if only it had more resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 34-39"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.003
Tae-Hwy Lee , Ekaterina Seregina
In this paper we develop a novel method of combining many forecasts based on Graphical LASSO. We represent forecast errors from different forecasters as a network of interacting entities and generalize network inference in the presence of common factor structure and structural breaks. First, we note that forecasters often use common information and hence make common errors, which makes the forecast errors exhibit common factor structures. We separate common forecast errors from the idiosyncratic errors and exploit sparsity of the precision matrix of the latter. Second, since the network of experts changes over time as a response to unstable environments, we propose Regime-Dependent Factor Graphical LASSO (RD-FGL) that allows factor loadings and idiosyncratic precision matrix to be regime-dependent. The empirical applications to forecasting macroeconomic series using the data of the European Central Bank’s Survey of Professional Forecasters and Federal Reserve Economic Data monthly database demonstrate superior performance of a combined forecast using RD-FGL.
{"title":"Combining forecasts under structural breaks using Graphical LASSO","authors":"Tae-Hwy Lee , Ekaterina Seregina","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span>In this paper we develop a novel method of combining many forecasts based on Graphical LASSO. We represent forecast errors from different forecasters as a network of interacting entities and generalize network inference in the presence of common factor structure and structural breaks. First, we note that forecasters often use common information and hence make common errors, which makes the forecast errors exhibit common factor structures. We separate common forecast errors from the idiosyncratic errors and exploit sparsity of the precision matrix of the latter. Second, since the network of experts changes over time as a response to unstable environments, we propose Regime-Dependent Factor Graphical LASSO (RD-FGL) that allows factor loadings and idiosyncratic precision matrix to be regime-dependent. The empirical applications to forecasting </span>macroeconomic series using the data of the European Central Bank’s Survey of Professional Forecasters and Federal Reserve Economic Data monthly database demonstrate superior performance of a combined forecast using RD-FGL.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 126-137"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-22DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.006
Nicolas Rost , Michele Ronco
This exploratory study assesses the risk of future onset of large-scale, conflict-related internal displacement in countries facing humanitarian emergencies. We train a variety of machine learning models on near-real-time data, which we compare against a simple baseline model, to assess the risk, one and three months into the future, of whether at least 1,000 people per month will flee their homes due to conflict. Measures of past displacement, conflict, risk of humanitarian crises, humanitarian access, the severity of humanitarian crises, and free elections improve forecasting performance. Limitations include the fact that displacement onsets are rare and hard to predict, and limited data availability and quality. Still, the best random forest model flagged 24 of 26 cases of displacement onset three months into the future and identified a high-risk group of country-months with a 33 times higher probability of displacement onset than a low-risk group. Providing such monthly forecasts to humanitarian practitioners could help them prepare better for new displacement or even mitigate the human suffering caused by conflict.
{"title":"Anticipating humanitarian emergencies with a high risk of conflict-induced displacement","authors":"Nicolas Rost , Michele Ronco","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This exploratory study assesses the risk of future onset of large-scale, conflict-related internal displacement in countries facing humanitarian emergencies. We train a variety of machine learning models on near-real-time data, which we compare against a simple baseline model, to assess the risk, one and three months into the future, of whether at least 1,000 people per month will flee their homes due to conflict. Measures of past displacement, conflict, risk of humanitarian crises, humanitarian access, the severity of humanitarian crises, and free elections improve forecasting performance. Limitations include the fact that displacement onsets are rare and hard to predict, and limited data availability and quality. Still, the best random forest model flagged 24 of 26 cases of displacement onset three months into the future and identified a high-risk group of country-months with a 33 times higher probability of displacement onset than a low-risk group. Providing such monthly forecasts to humanitarian practitioners could help them prepare better for new displacement or even mitigate the human suffering caused by conflict.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 138-157"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-20DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.001
Deqing Wang , Zhihao Lu , Zhenhua Liu , Shoucong Xue , Mengxia Guo , Yiwen Hou
Since the high-frequency crude oil futures price data from intraday trading sessions exhibit continuous functional characteristics, we propose a functional mixture prediction (FMP) model for real-time forecasting of crude oil cumulative intraday returns (CIDR). The core idea of FMP is dynamic forecasting after adaptive classification. Specifically, we develop an adaptive functional clustering algorithm to identify the distinct patterns of CIDR curves and establish a probabilistic discriminant model to estimate their cluster membership probabilities. The mixture prediction of a new partially observed CIDR is obtained by weighting its predicted trajectory in each cluster with its estimated membership probabilities. Moreover, we design an adaptive information updating mechanism to further improve the accuracy of intraday forecasts. Empirical results from applying FMP to forecast the CIDR of China’s crude oil futures show that the proposed FMP not only outperforms several competing forecasters but also provides additional insights into CIDR analysis by revealing distinct patterns in daily CIDR curves of similar variability and typical temporal trends. Furthermore, we provide evidence that FMP can achieve greater gains for traders with different risk preferences based on our designed intraday trading strategies.
{"title":"A functional mixture prediction model for dynamically forecasting cumulative intraday returns of crude oil futures","authors":"Deqing Wang , Zhihao Lu , Zhenhua Liu , Shoucong Xue , Mengxia Guo , Yiwen Hou","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since the high-frequency crude oil futures price data from intraday trading sessions exhibit continuous functional characteristics, we propose a functional mixture prediction (FMP) model for real-time forecasting of crude oil cumulative intraday returns (CIDR). The core idea of FMP is dynamic forecasting after adaptive classification. Specifically, we develop an adaptive functional clustering algorithm to identify the distinct patterns of CIDR curves and establish a probabilistic discriminant model to estimate their cluster membership probabilities. The mixture prediction of a new partially observed CIDR is obtained by weighting its predicted trajectory in each cluster with its estimated membership probabilities. Moreover, we design an adaptive information updating mechanism to further improve the accuracy of intraday forecasts. Empirical results from applying FMP to forecast the CIDR of China’s crude oil futures show that the proposed FMP not only outperforms several competing forecasters but also provides additional insights into CIDR analysis by revealing distinct patterns in daily CIDR curves of similar variability and typical temporal trends. Furthermore, we provide evidence that FMP can achieve greater gains for traders with different risk preferences based on our designed intraday trading strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 158-180"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-19DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.006
David Aikman , Richard Barwell
We summarize reactions to the Bernanke Review from the Bank of England watchers community – a diverse group of academics, market economists, and business analysts who closely monitor and analyze the actions of the Bank of England. Key themes include the Review’s recommendations to retire the “fan chart”, increase the use of scenario analysis, and de-emphasize the central forecast conditioned on the market yield curve, as well as its critique of the Bank’s forecasting infrastructure. There is also extensive discussion of areas left unaddressed by the Review, including whether the Monetary Policy Committee should publish its preferred policy rate path, adopt a Fed-style dot plot, or give Bank staff ownership of the forecast.
{"title":"Reactions to the Bernanke Review from Bank of England watchers","authors":"David Aikman , Richard Barwell","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We summarize reactions to the Bernanke Review from the Bank of England watchers community – a diverse group of academics, market economists, and business analysts who closely monitor and analyze the actions of the Bank of England. Key themes include the Review’s recommendations to retire the “fan chart”, increase the use of scenario analysis, and de-emphasize the central forecast conditioned on the market yield curve, as well as its critique of the Bank’s forecasting infrastructure. There is also extensive discussion of areas left unaddressed by the Review, including whether the Monetary Policy Committee should publish its preferred policy rate path, adopt a Fed-style dot plot, or give Bank staff ownership of the forecast.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 3-12"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-17DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.005
Guy P. Nason, Henry Antonio Palasciano
This article forecasts consumer price index (CPI) inflation in the United Kingdom using random generalised network autoregressive (RaGNAR) processes. More specifically, we fit generalised network autoregressive (GNAR) processes to a large set of random networks generated according to the Erdős–Rényi–Gilbert model and select the best-performing networks each month to compute out-of-sample forecasts. RaGNAR significantly outperforms traditional benchmark models across all horizons. Remarkably, RaGNAR also delivers materially more accurate predictions than the Bank of England’s four to six month inflation rate forecasts published in their quarterly Monetary Policy Reports. Our results are remarkable not only for their accuracy, but also because of their speed, efficiency, and simplicity compared to the Bank’s current forecasting processes. RaGNAR’s performance improvements manifest in terms of both their root mean squared error and mean absolute percentage error, which measure different, but crucial, aspects of the methods’ performance. GNAR processes demonstrably predict future changes to CPI inflation more accurately and quickly than the benchmark models, especially at medium- to long-term forecast horizons, which is of great importance to policymakers charged with setting interest rates. We find that the most robust forecasts are those which combine the predictions from multiple GNAR processes via the use of various model averaging techniques. By analysing the structure of the best-performing graphs, we are also able to identify the key components that influence inflation rates during different periods.
本文使用随机广义网络自回归(RaGNAR)过程预测英国消费者价格指数(CPI)通胀。更具体地说,我们将广义网络自回归(GNAR)过程拟合到根据Erdős-Rényi-Gilbert模型生成的大量随机网络中,并每月选择表现最佳的网络来计算样本外预测。RaGNAR在所有领域的表现都明显优于传统的基准模型。值得注意的是,RaGNAR的预测也比英国央行(Bank of England)在其季度货币政策报告(Monetary Policy Reports)中发布的4至6个月通胀率预测准确得多。与世界银行目前的预测流程相比,我们的结果不仅因为其准确性,而且因为其速度、效率和简单性而引人注目。RaGNAR的性能改进体现在它们的均方根误差和平均绝对百分比误差上,它们衡量了方法性能的不同但至关重要的方面。GNAR过程显然比基准模型更准确、更快速地预测CPI通胀的未来变化,特别是在中长期预测范围内,这对负责设定利率的政策制定者非常重要。我们发现,最可靠的预测是那些通过使用各种模型平均技术将多个GNAR过程的预测结合起来的预测。通过分析表现最好的图表的结构,我们还能够确定在不同时期影响通货膨胀率的关键因素。
{"title":"Forecasting UK consumer price inflation with RaGNAR: Random generalised network autoregressive processes","authors":"Guy P. Nason, Henry Antonio Palasciano","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article forecasts consumer price index (CPI) inflation in the United Kingdom using random generalised network autoregressive (RaGNAR) processes. More specifically, we fit generalised network autoregressive (GNAR) processes to a large set of random networks generated according to the Erdős–Rényi–Gilbert model and select the best-performing networks each month to compute out-of-sample forecasts. RaGNAR significantly outperforms traditional benchmark models across all horizons. Remarkably, RaGNAR also delivers materially more accurate predictions than the Bank of England’s four to six month inflation rate forecasts published in their quarterly Monetary Policy Reports. Our results are remarkable not only for their accuracy, but also because of their speed, efficiency, and simplicity compared to the Bank’s current forecasting processes. RaGNAR’s performance improvements manifest in terms of both their root mean squared error and mean absolute percentage error, which measure different, but crucial, aspects of the methods’ performance. GNAR processes demonstrably predict future changes to CPI inflation more accurately and quickly than the benchmark models, especially at medium- to long-term forecast horizons, which is of great importance to policymakers charged with setting interest rates. We find that the most robust forecasts are those which combine the predictions from multiple GNAR processes via the use of various model averaging techniques. By analysing the structure of the best-performing graphs, we are also able to identify the key components that influence inflation rates during different periods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 181-202"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The M6 competition evaluated investment performance over a period of one year, contributing to the efficient market hypothesis debate. This paper provides further insights into the outcomes of the competition by unraveling the effect that team engagement and performance consistency had on the final results. First, we identify three different types of engagement and investigate their relationship with portfolio efficiency, also making useful observations about the learning effect implied by a re-submission process. Then, we analyze the monthly performance of the teams and determine whether it aligned with their global performance or was affected significantly by extreme instances. Our results suggest that consistency is more important than engagement for making profitable investments. Nevertheless, we identify many cases where both regular portfolio updates and luck provided an advantage.
{"title":"Unraveling the effect of engagement and consistency in the results of the M6 forecasting competition","authors":"Anastasios Kaltsounis, Evangelos Theodorou, Evangelos Spiliotis, Vassilios Assimakopoulos","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.04.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The M6 competition evaluated investment performance over a period of one year, contributing to the efficient market hypothesis debate. This paper provides further insights into the outcomes of the competition by unraveling the effect that team engagement and performance consistency had on the final results. First, we identify three different types of engagement and investigate their relationship with portfolio efficiency, also making useful observations about the learning effect implied by a re-submission process. Then, we analyze the monthly performance of the teams and determine whether it aligned with their global performance or was affected significantly by extreme instances. Our results suggest that consistency is more important than engagement for making profitable investments. Nevertheless, we identify many cases where both regular portfolio updates and luck provided an advantage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"41 4","pages":"Pages 1404-1412"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145020560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.007
Arndt Leininger , Andreas E. Murr , Lukas Stötzer , Mark A. Kayser
Existing studies show that aggregating citizens’ expectations about who will win can predict election outcomes in a majoritarian system. But can so-called citizen forecasting also successfully predict outcomes in mixed-member systems, where constituency results are less important? The existing evidence is mixed and limited in scope. We conducted, therefore, a citizen forecast of the 2021 German federal election by administering an original survey asking citizens who they thought would win in their constituency, what share of the vote each candidate would win in their constituency, and what share of the vote each party would win nationally. Citizens predicted constituency winners and vote shares more accurately than several benchmarks. However, our citizen forecast was based on a non-representative sample from an online-access panel. We conclude that citizen forecasting provides a simple and inexpensive way to predict the various relevant outcomes in mixed-member elections.
{"title":"Citizen forecasting in a mixed electoral system","authors":"Arndt Leininger , Andreas E. Murr , Lukas Stötzer , Mark A. Kayser","doi":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijforecast.2025.03.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing studies show that aggregating citizens’ expectations about who will win can predict election outcomes in a majoritarian system. But can so-called citizen forecasting also successfully predict outcomes in mixed-member systems, where constituency results are less important? The existing evidence is mixed and limited in scope. We conducted, therefore, a citizen forecast of the 2021 German federal election by administering an original survey asking citizens who they thought would win in their constituency, what share of the vote each candidate would win in their constituency, and what share of the vote each party would win nationally. Citizens predicted constituency winners and vote shares more accurately than several benchmarks. However, our citizen forecast was based on a non-representative sample from an online-access panel. We conclude that citizen forecasting provides a simple and inexpensive way to predict the various relevant outcomes in mixed-member elections.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14061,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Forecasting","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 203-215"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145610316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}