In this paper, we forecast EU-area inflation with many predictors using time-varying parameter models. The facts that time-varying parameter models are parameter-rich and the time span of our data is relatively short motivate a desire for shrinkage. In constant coefficient regression models, the Bayesian Lasso is gaining increasing popularity as an effective tool for achieving such shrinkage. I...

The Kalman filter formula, given by the linear recursive algorithm, is usually used for estimation of the time-varying parameter model. The filtering formula, introduced by Kalman (1960) and Kalman and Bucy (1961), requires the initial state variable. The obtained state estimates are influenced by the initial value when the initial variance is not too large. To avoid the choice of the initial s...