When are adaptive expectations rational? A generalization

Shepherd, Ben (2011): When are adaptive expectations rational? A generalization.

Abstract

This note presents a simple generalization of the adaptive expectations mechanism in which the learning parameter is time variant. It is shown that expectations generated in this way are rational in the sense of producing minimum mean squared forecast errors for a broad class of time series models, namely any process that can be written in linear state space form.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Adaptive Expectations; Rational Expectations; Kalman Filter
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C53 - Forecasting and Prediction Methods ; Simulation Methods; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C22 - Time-Series Models ; Dynamic Quantile Regressions ; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models ; Diffusion Processes

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