'Animal spirits' and expectations in U.S. recession forecasting

Abstract

A two-variable model is developed to forecast the probability of recession in the U.S. economy. Like many others, the model uses data a year or more old to explain movements of a dichotomous dependent variable for recession. The innovation of the present effort is the introduction of a confidence variable, which appears to increase the qualitative accuracy and structural stability of the model in validation testing compared to others.