Quants
A strong quantitative expertise... but not quant fundamentalists!
TAC has a very strong « quantitative bias », meaning that we
collect, organize, mine and treat data on a large scale with tools that range
from the most traditional to the most advanced and sophisticated.
However, we often say that we are not « quant fundamentalists ».
We
keep a wide-open eye on results from our modeling and data-mining exercises
and stand ready to challenge them and explore alternative routes and methods.
But we also believe that the data analysis and modeling techniques give us
an enviable unbiased view on (often hotly debated) issues and they ensure
a strong consistency in our analytical process. The models also allow us running
different simulations and alternatives, while our top-of-the-market non-linear
techniques are the only ones able to consistently deliver better advance signals
of major breaks or systemic shocks.
Economic Modeling & Data Mining
A large range of modeling techniques are usually involved in the different quantitative exercises at TAC. We are definitely familiar with traditional/well-known techniques, such as time series modeling, panel estimates, volatility models, cointegration, structural VAR,... as well as more advanced/sophisticated approaches: GMM, Error Correction Models, Kalman filters, markov switching models, difference in differences estimations, wavelets analyses, etc...
TAC has also developed strong skills in classification methods, data mining and text mining techniques, from simple principal component analyses or discriminant analyses to the more complex recursive partitioning algorithms (CART), genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, random forest, neural networks, self organizing maps, support vector machines (SVM), etc...
Large databases & web plateforms
We construct, organize and use very large databases on economic, financial and industrial indicators across all continents and countries. The largest part of this work is for our own internal use, but we have made some of the databases public, usually associated with a strong analytical content:
- Monitoring the achievements for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
A portal to track progress on these MDGs over more than 140 locations worldwide using the World Bank MDGs database.
www.mdgTrack.org - Monitoring foreign investment going in China as well as China’s outward
foreign investment. A database created and is maintained by TAC in
the framework of a specific assignment for the European Commission:
www.ChinaObs.eu