Combining multivariate volatility forecasts using weighted losses

The ability to improve out-of-sample forecasting performance by combining forecasts is well established in the literature. This paper advances this literature in the area of multivariate volatility forecasts by developing two combination weighting schemes that exploit volatility persistence to emphasise certain losses within the combination estimation period. A comprehensive empirical analysis of the out-of-sample forecast performance across varying dimensions, loss functions, sub-samples and forecast horizons show that new approaches significantly outperform their counterparts in terms of statistical accuracy. Within the financial applications considered, significant benefits from combination forecasts relative to the individual candidate models are observed. Although the more sophisticated combination approaches consistently rank higher relative to the equally weighted approach, their performance is statistically indistinguishable given the relatively low power of these loss functions. Finally, within the applications, further analysis highlights how combination forecasts dramatically reduce the variability in the parameter of interest, namely the portfolio weight or beta.     

Identifying US business cycle regimes using dynamic factors and neural network models

We use dynamic factors and neural network models to identify current and past states (instead of future) of the US business cycle. In the first step, we reduce noise in data by using a moving average filter. Dynamic factors are then extracted from a large-scale data set consisted of more than 100 variables. In the last step, these dynamic factors are fed into the neural network model for predicting business cycle regimes. We show that our proposed method follows US business cycle regimes quite accurately in-sample and out-of-sample without taking account of the historical data availability. Our results also indicate that noise reduction is an important step for business cycle prediction. Furthermore, using pseudo real time and vintage data, we show that our neural network model identifies turning points quite accurately and very quickly in real time.     

Model averaging estimation for conditional volatility models with an application to stock market volatility forecast

This paper is concerned with model averaging estimation for conditional volatility models. Given a set of candidate models with different functional forms, we propose a model averaging estimator and forecast for conditional volatility, and construct the corresponding weight-choosing criterion. Under some regulatory conditions, we show that the weight selected by the criterion asymptotically minimizes the true Kullback–Leibler divergence, which is the distributional approximation error, as well as the Itakura–Saito distance, which is the distance between the true and estimated or forecast conditional volatility. Monte Carlo experiments support our newly proposed method. As for the empirical applications of our method, we investigate a total of nine major stock market indices and make a 1-day-ahead volatility forecast for each data set. Empirical results show that the model averaging forecast achieves the highest accuracy in terms of all types of loss functions in most cases, which captures the movement of the unknown true conditional volatility.     

Correcting the January optimism effect

Each month, various professional forecasters give forecasts for next year's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth and unemployment. January is a special month, when the forecast horizon moves to the following calendar year. Instead of deleting the January data when analyzing forecast updates, I propose a periodic version of a test regression for weak-form efficiency. An application of this periodic model for many forecasts across a range of countries shows that in January GDP forecast updates are positive, whereas the forecast updates for unemployment are negative. I document that this January optimism about the new calendar year is detrimental to forecast accuracy. To empirically analyze Okun's law, I also propose a periodic test regression, and its application provides more support for this law.     

基于SEM的高校体育教育学生满意度研究

借助"顾客满意度"理论,构建高校体育教育学生满意度测量量表.运用因子分析理论,对"感知质量"变量进行探索性因子分析,运用参数检验的方法对各变量在性别上的差异性做对比分析,运用结构方程模型的方法,对高校体育教育学生满意度模型中的5个变量进行相关性分析.因子分析结果表明,高校体育教育服务感知质量包括"体育硬件感知""体育教学感知"和"课外体育感知"3个维度;各变量的均值及差异性对比分析结果表明,学生对高校体育教育的"感知质量""感知价值"和"总体满意度"评分偏低,男生评分低于女生;结构方程模型分析结果表明,"体育硬件"对"总体满意度"有直接和间接的影响,"体育教学"通过中介变量"感知价值"对"总体满意度"有间接的影响.     

线性回归模型的一类新约束型LIU估计

针对带线性约束型的回归模型复共线性问题,提出了一种新估计,称之为修正约束型LIU估计,给出了新估计的性质.在均方误差准则基础上证明了在一定条件下,修正约束型LIU估计优于最小二乘估计、岭估计、修正岭估计和约束型LIU估计,最后讨论了新估计的可容许性.     

考虑超固结比与泊松效应的荷载传递模型

为了分析超固结状态及泊松效应对砂土管桩界面剪切特性的影响，在传统双曲线荷载传递模型的基础上，采用考虑超固结比的侧向土压力系数，计入由泊松效应引起的侧向土压力增加值，建立能同时考虑砂土超固结比及管桩泊松效应的界面荷载传递模型，对其可靠性进行验证。通过算例对极限摩阻力影响因素进行分析，结果表明：超固结比从1.0增大到3.0，抗压桩和抗拔桩极限摩阻力近似呈线性增大，抗压桩提高约83.6%，抗拔桩提高约92.9%；泊松比从0.1增大到0.3，抗压桩极限摩阻力呈线性增大，提高约3.5%；抗拔桩极限摩阻力呈线性减小，降低约3.6%；桩土模量比从300增大到1 500，抗压桩极限摩阻力降低约7.6%；抗拔桩极限摩阻力提高约9.6%。     

灰色广义Verhulst模型的构建及其应用

一般认为,灰色Verhulst模型(grey verhulst model,简称GVM)适用于具有单峰或饱和S形的序列.然而,在利用GVM建模时,模拟值有时会出现"漂移"现象,使得模型精度变差.针对这一问题,将常数项引入GVM模型,构建了灰色广义Verhulst模型(grey generalized verhulst model,简称GGVM),并在参数的不同分类下,借助灰色建模序列的非负性,完整地给出了灰色广义Verhulst模型的时间响应式及其还原值.将GGVM与GVM模型分别对四个单峰型序列建模,发现GGVM能有效地解决GVM模型模拟值出现的“漂移”现象.在实证部分,利用新模型对江苏省石油与天然气的基础储量进行建模分析,并与GVM模型、数据分组处理算法比较,验证了GGVM在模拟及预测时的优势.     

基于广义梯形模糊数相似度的交叉效率集结

在不确定环境下,针对模糊数据的多样性和复杂性,本文结合广义梯形模糊数相似度理论将广义梯形模糊数的交叉效率矩阵转换为交叉互评相似度矩阵,并根据模糊信息检索系统中的布尔模型,以能最大程度还原信息本身为准则,构建满足"正相容性"的有序几何平均集结函数对交叉互评相似度矩阵进行集结,从而得到关于每个决策单元的同行评价综合相似度.根据决策单元的同行评价综合相似度,建立反映决策者偏好的模糊一致性偏好矩阵,并对决策单元进行集结权重的分配,根据分配结果计算决策单元的全局交叉效率值.本文的集结方法可以解决不确定环境下,交叉效率矩阵数据多样性的问题,有较高的适用性;并且其集结结果具有较高的一致性和稳定性.最后本文以梯形模糊数的交叉效率矩阵为算例,来说明该方法的合理性和适用性.     

基于Kriging模型的多点加点准则和并行代理优化算法

针对并行仿真环境下复杂工程系统的优化设计问题,提出一种基于Kriging模型、多目标策略和聚类方法的并行代理优化算法.该算法的多点加点准则,以同时优化期望改进准则和可行性概率准则为目标,首先生成兼具目标响应改进和可行域边界刻画功能的备选试验点集;再利用聚类方法从备选点集中选取多个有代表性的新试验点.通过两个数值算例和一个工程算例,将所提并行优化算法与已有算法做比较,结果表明所提算法具有更高的优化精度、效率和稳健性.