On the Wisdom of Crowds (of Economists)
经济学家群体的智慧:预测平均与分散化收益
We study the properties of macroeconomic survey forecast response averages as the number of survey respondents grows. Such averages are ``portfolios" of forecasts. We characterize the speed and pattern of the gains from diversification as a function of portfolio size (the number of survey respondents) in both (1) the key real-world data-based environment of the U.S. Survey of Professional Forecasters, and (2) the theoretical model-based environment of equicorrelated forecast…