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Forecasting trends is more important now than it has ever been. Our quantitative financial and macroeconomic research helps central banks and statistical agencies better understand their markets.

Our researchers are experts in forecasting economic trends with structural changes, where geopolitical context generates new risks. Having our base in central London means we can focus on issues that really matter to the City.

Our group includes King’s researchers as well as academics, professionals, and policy makers from other universities and organisations around the world.

Vision

Today's world faces unparalleled challenges and complexities raising the need to analyse and forecast trends and developments in a sophisticated and rigorous manner. This is coupled with the availability of larger and more complex datasets.

The Data Analytics for Finance and Macro (DAFM) aims to promote rigorous analysis in finance and macroeconomics using advanced and theoretically rigorous quantitative methods considering the continuously changing economy and society, as well as the use of complex and large datasets. Areas of relevance include central banks and public statistical, financial markets and firm behaviour. A further focus is to use such methods to promote scenario and interval forecasting that explicitly incorporate the need to account for risk and uncertainty.

Our researchers are experts in forecasting economic trends with structural changes, where geopolitical context generates new risks. Having our base in central London means we can focus on issues that really matter to the City.

Our group includes King’s researchers as well as academics, professionals, and policy makers from other universities and organisations around the world.

Our Methods

Our research is purely quantitative. We focus on data science and applied econometrics to find definitive answers to important questions. Our work can help people understand economic behaviour and adapt to changes in the economy.

We’re unique thanks to our emphasis on digitalisation and the use of big data analytics.

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Features & Objectives

The key features of our centre are:

  • The first feature, which makes us unique compared to other research centres on similar themes across the country, is Digitalisation and the use of Big Data analytics. Nowadays, information is transmitted almost in a continuous manner, making major institutions and corporations to consider high frequency data as one of their main sources.
  • Our second distinctive feature is the research expertise of our members. Forecasting economic trends with structural changes, where geopolitical context generates new risks, is one of the main research and consultancy themes of our researchers. Furthermore, one of the group directors is an Editor in the International Journal of Forecasting.
  • The third distinctive feature of our centre is its pure quantitative nature. Because of the two above mentioned challenges, i.e. “Digitalisation and Big Data” and “new risks and frequent structural changes”, more focus is now paid on data science and applied econometrics which aim to explain economic behaviour empirically and automatically adapt to the new states of the economy.
  • Finally, our centre focuses on issues that directly concern the City and policymakers.

Providing answers

Our aim is to provide suggestions to policy-makers and other stakeholders based on our research. In particular, we aim to provide answers in the following questions:

  • How can big data improve macroeconomic nowcasting and its use in policy-making decisions?
  • How can we forecast economic trends in the presence of ongoing structural change?
  • How effective can monetary policy be in the low interest rate era?
  • How alternative forms of central bank governance affect the City/financial markets?

Group leads

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