Causal Forces: Structuring Knowledge for Time-Series Extrapolation

Journal of Forecasting , Vol. 12, pp. 103-115, 1993

17 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2005 Last revised: 26 Jul 2008

See all articles by J. Scott Armstrong

J. Scott Armstrong

University of Pennsylvania - Marketing Department

Fred Collopy

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Information Systems

Abstract

This paper examines a strategy for structuring one type of domain knowledge for use in extrapolation. It does so by representing information about causality and using this domain knowledge to select and combine forecasts. We use five categories to express causal impacts upon trends: Growth, decay, supporting, opposing, and regressing. An identification of causal forces aided in the determination of weights for combining extrapolation forecasts. These weights improved average ex ante forecast accuracy when tested on 104 annual economic and demographic time series. Gains in accuracy were greatest when (1) the causal forces were clearly specified and (2) stronger causal effects were expected, as in longer-range forecasts. One rule suggested by this analysis was: "Do not extrapolate trends if they are contrary to causal forces." We tested this rule by comparing forecasts from a method that implicitly assumes supporting trends (Holt's exponential smoothing) with forecasts from the random walk. Use of the rule improved accuracy for 20 series where the trends were contrary; the MdAPE (Median Absolute Percentage Error) was 18% less for the random walk on 20 one-year ahead forecasts and 40% less for 20 six-year-ahead forecasts. We then applied the rule to four other data sets. Here, the MdAPE for the random walk forecasts was 17% less than Holt's error for 943 short-range forecasts and 43% less for 723 long-range forecasts. Our study suggests that the causal assumptions implicit in traditional extrapolation methods are inappropriate for many applications.

Keywords: Causal forces, Combining, Contrary trends, Damped trends, Exponential

Suggested Citation

Armstrong, J. Scott and Collopy, Fred, Causal Forces: Structuring Knowledge for Time-Series Extrapolation. Journal of Forecasting , Vol. 12, pp. 103-115, 1993, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=662684

J. Scott Armstrong (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania - Marketing Department ( email )

700 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6340
United States
215-898-5087 (Phone)
215-898-2534 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/people/faculty/armstrong.cfm

Fred Collopy

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Information Systems ( email )

10900 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106-7235
United States

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