Time-varying predictive content of financial variables in forecasting GDP growth in the G-7 countries

The predictive association between financial markets and the real economy has proven unstable and transitory over time. This study reexamines empirical evidence regarding the predictive content of financial variables for GDP growth in light of the changed economic circumstances in the G-7 countries in the 2000s. We explicitly address time variations in the predictive power of financial variables for GDP growth. The results indicate that the behavior of the forecasting ability contains a considerable amount of temporal dominance and time persistence, which often vary contemporaneously among the G-7 countries. The forecasting content is clearly connected to unsettled economic conditions. (C) 2018 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.