Panel forecasts of country-level Covid-19 infections

Laura Liu, Hyungsik Roger Moon and Frank Schorfheide

Journal of Econometrics, 2021, vol. 220, issue 1, 2-22

Abstract: We use a dynamic panel data model to generate density forecasts for daily active Covid-19 infections for a panel of countries/regions. Our specification that assumes the growth rate of active infections can be represented by autoregressive fluctuations around a downward sloping deterministic trend function with a break. Our fully Bayesian approach allows us to flexibly estimate the cross-sectional distribution of slopes and then implicitly use this distribution as prior to construct Bayes forecasts for the individual time series. We find some evidence that information from locations with an early outbreak can sharpen forecast accuracy for late locations. There is generally a lot of uncertainty about the evolution of active infection, due to parameter and shock uncertainty, in particular before and around the peak of the infection path. Over a one-week horizon, the empirical coverage frequency of our interval forecasts is close to the nominal credible level. Weekly forecasts from our model are published at https://laurayuliu.com/covid19-panel-forecast/.

Keywords: Bayesian inference; Covid-19; Density forecasts; Interval forecasts; Panel data models; Random effects; SIR model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C23 C53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Working Paper: Panel Forecasts of Country-Level Covid-19 Infections (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:econom:v:220:y:2021:i:1:p:2-22

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2020.08.010

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