UCLA Anderson Forecast
About Us
For over 70 years, the UCLA Anderson Forecast has provided forecasts for the economies of California and the United States.
Founded by Professor Robert M. Williams in 1952, the national forecast has been recognized as one of the most accurate and has a reputation for being unbiased – a factor that the numerous corporate and Wall Street forecasts cannot lay claim to. The California forecast is the most widely followed and oft-cited in the state and was unique in predicting both the seriousness of the early-1990s downturn and the strength of the state economy’s rebound since 1993. It was also credited as the first major U.S. economic forecasting group to declare the recession of 2001. More recently, it was the first group to predict the 2020 COVID recession.
Current director Jerry Nickelsburg along with economists William Yu, Zhiyun Li, Thomas Ash, Sayantani Sayantani and professor emeritus Edward Leamer and visiting scholar David Shulman, combine their own expertise with the latest computer-based econometric models. We have published regional forecasts for Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco - and other local regional economies.
Our quarterly conferences are attended by a cross-section of business, government and academic decision-makers from all over California as well as the United States. We typically draw 400-500 attendees. Many of our attendees subscribe to the Forecast and attend most or all of our quarterly conferences. Others are drawn by the specific topic of a conference, such as real estate, climate change or technology as a key part of the regional economy.
Seminar members include companies: Avenu Insights & Analytics, Cathay Bank and Southern California Edison; regional entities include the Orange County Transportation Authority, Los Angeles County CEO's Office, Los Angeles Regional Consortium, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and California entities include the Department of Finance, State Energy Commission, State Air Resources Board, Employment Development Department and State Controller’s Office.