Universities Team Up on Economic Forecasting

Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and UC Santa Barbara have announced a joint effort to provide enhanced economic forecasting for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The two universities will present the East Ventura County Economic Forecast Seminar on Oct. 5 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The seminar, with plans to become an annual event, will explain economic trends in the tri-county region, California and around the nation.

Scheduled speakers include UC Santa Barbara’s Bill Watkins, who will present an east county economic review and forecast; Rajeev Dhawan, director of Econometric Forecasting for UCLA’s Anderson Forecast, who will present U.S. and California forecasts, and Max Darnell, director of research for First Quadrant, who will discuss risk and the outlook for stocks.

The inaugural project will create the first sophisticated forecasting model built specifically for the eastern Ventura County economy. The model will include the Los Angeles County communities of Westlake Village, Agoura and Calabasas. Similar models are also planned for other areas of the tri-county region.