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Prediction of Czech GDP using mixed-frequency machine learning models
Kotlan, Ivan ; Polák, Petr (advisor) ; Kukačka, Jiří (referee)
The goal of this study is first to provide superior predictions of Czech GDP growth to the o cial estimates of the Czech Statistical O ce and the proxy estimation of the Czech National Bank. Secondly, to expand the literature that focuses on machine-learning predictions that utilizes data with various sampling frequency. Although in the first goal, this thesis did not succeed as all models, namely Ridge and Random Forest, failed to beat the predictions of o cial institutes, the thesis contributes to the yet scarce literature on mixed-frequency machine-learning prediction. Since no machine-learning model accounts for data with various frequencies, the thesis shows how to transform variables so that any machine-learning model can utilize them. Furthermore, di erent dataset modifications are explored, such as the prediction time: end of the reference quarter (nowcast) and 40 days after the reference quarter (backcast), standardized and non-standardized datasets. And finally, for the superior Ridge model, the e ect of so-called high-frequency variables (sampled every week) is explored. While Random Forest showed little e ect by using di erent versions of the dataset, in the case of the Ridge model, the type of dataset had a significant e ect. While the non-standardized Ridge produces better overall...
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GDPNow for the Czech Republic
Kutman, Jan ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kukačka, Jiří (referee)
The gross domestic product (GDP) is an essential measure of the state of economic activity and serves as a crucial tool for policymakers, investors, or businesses. However, the official GDP estimate in the Czech Republic is only available with a lag of approximately 60 days, and the Czech National Bank (CNB) announces its GDP forecast once in each quarter. This thesis focuses on predicting GDP growth in the current quarter, referred to as nowcasting. I employ several methods to nowcast the real GDP growth in the Czech Republic in a pseudo-real-time setting and compare their performance. Additionally, I investigate the possibility of creating an ensemble model by using a weighted average of several nowcasting models. The results suggest that the Dynamic Factor Model (DFM) performs best in the GDP nowcasting task, and its predictive accuracy is comparable with the official CNB nowcast. Furthermore, the model averaging process yields accuracy close to the best individual model while addressing model uncertainty. The GDP nowcast of the DFM will be made available to the public in real-time on a website and updated with a daily frequency.
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