Title: Macroeconometric models in practice: the Istat experience

Authors: Fabio Bacchini; Alessandro Girardi; Carmine Pappalardo

Addresses: Econometric Studies and Economic Forecasting Division – Istat, Piazza dell'Indipendenza 4, Rome 00185, Italy ' Econometric Studies and Economic Forecasting Division – Istat, Piazza dell'Indipendenza 4, Rome 00185, Italy ' Econometric Studies and Economic Forecasting Division – Istat, Piazza dell'Indipendenza 4, Rome 00185, Italy

Abstract: The global financial crisis has given new emphasis to the creation and strengthening of independent fiscal institutions (IFI). At the same time new attention has been paid to the performance assessment of Macroeconometric models based on different theoretical approaches. These initiatives reinforce the need for the improvements in the communication of results of Macroeconometric models especially policy evaluation and uncertainty of the projections. This is why, since May 2012, when the first forecast was released by Istat, the new Macroeconometric model for Italian economy (MeMo-It) was designed to assure a high level of transparency about its methodological characteristics and its results. The main aim is to provide stakeholders with a model that can be easily used by the analysts and shared with the scientific community. This paper illustrates the main computation characteristic of MeMo-It and the first version of the tool designed for policy evaluation.

Keywords: econometric modelling; forecasting; simulation; macroeconomic policy; econometrics; macroeconomics; Italy; Italian economy; policy evaluation; MeMo-It.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEE.2015.070618

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, 2015 Vol.5 No.3, pp.345 - 360

Received: 26 Feb 2014
Accepted: 09 Oct 2014

Published online: 14 Jul 2015 *

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