We develop a vector autoregressive framework that combines an external instrument and heteroskedasticity for the identification of monetary policy shocks. We show that exploiting both types of information sharpens structural inference, allows testing both the relevance and exogeneity condition...

In this paper, we investigate whether the Google search activity can help in nowcasting the year-on-year growth rates of monthly US private consumption using a real-time data set. The Google-based forecasts are compared to those based on a benchmark AR(1) model and the models including the...