FEDS Paper: Bells and Whistles of Nowcasting Models: Which Matter and When?
Freddy García-Albán and Manuel González-AstudilloThis paper investigates which features of a Bayesian dynamic factor model improve U.S. GDP nowcasts and whether their contribution varies across historical episodes. Using pseudo-real-time information sets for 25 series, we estimate 16 combinations of dynamic heterogeneity, stochastic volatility, time-varying long-run growth, and a multiplicative outlier adjustment.