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We describe the evolution of forecasts in the run-up to recessions. The GDP forecasts cover 63 countries for the years 1992 to 2014. The main finding is that, while forecasters are generally aware that recession years will be different from other years, they miss the magnitude of the recession by a wide margin until the year is almost over. Forecasts during non-recession years are revised slowly; in recession years, the pace of revision picks up but not sufficiently to avoid large forecast errors. Our second finding is that forecasts of the private sector and the official sector are virtually identical; thus, both are equally good at missing recessions. Strong booms are also missed, providing suggestive evidence for Nordhaus’ (1987) view that behavioral factors—the reluctance to absorb either good or bad news—play a role in the evolution of forecasts.

Economics --- Economic sociology --- Socio-economics --- Socioeconomics --- Sociology of economics --- Sociology --- Sociological aspects. --- Social aspects --- Macroeconomics --- Economic Theory --- Model Evaluation and Selection --- Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications --- Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles: Forecasting and Simulation --- Macroeconomics: Production --- Expectations --- Speculations --- Economic theory & philosophy --- Production growth --- Rational expectations --- Production --- Economic theory --- Argentina

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We construct unanticipated government spending shocks for 103 developing countries from 1990 to 2015 and study their effects on income distribution. We find that unanticipated fiscal consolidations lead to a long-lasting increase in income inequality, while fiscal expansions lower inequality. The results are robust to several measures of income distribution and size of the fiscal shocks, to an alternative identification strategy, across expansions and recessions and across country groups (low-income countries versus emerging markets). An additional contribution of the paper is the computation of the medium-term inequality multiplier. This is on average about 1 in our sample, meaning that a cumulative decrease in government spending of 1 percent of GDP over 5 years is associated with a cumulative increase in the Gini coefficient over the same period of about 1 percentage point. The multiplier is larger for total government expenditure than for public investment and consumption (with the former having larger effect), likely due to the redistributive role of transfers. Finally, we find that (unanticipated) fiscal consolidations lead to an increase in poverty.

Macroeconomics --- Public Finance --- Business Fluctuations --- Cycles --- Expectations --- Speculations --- International Economic Order and Integration --- Energy: Demand and Supply --- Prices --- Energy and the Macroeconomy --- Energy: Government Policy --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: Infrastructures --- Other Public Investment and Capital Stock --- Public finance & taxation --- Income inequality --- Expenditure --- Income distribution --- Total expenditures --- Public investment spending --- National accounts --- Expenditures, Public --- Public investments --- China, People's Republic of