<![CDATA[The index of consumer sentiment (ICS) has been widely employed as a proxy for future buying confidence to predict future aggregate buying behavior. This study empirically compares two forecast models: the expectation model that includes the ICS as an explanatory variable and the traditional model that does not include the ICS. The models are employed to estimate the aggregate demand for new cars in the U.S. from 1976 to 1984. The results indicate that the ICS has a positive relation with new car sales. On the basis of the likelihood dominance criterion, however, the traditional model is preferred to the expectation model. Furthermore, the forecast ability of the expectation model is slightly inferior to the traditional model]]>
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