We suggest the use of an index of Internet job-search intensity (the Google Index, GI) as the best leading indicator to predict the US monthly unemployment rate. We perform a deep out-of-sample forecasting comparison analyzing many models that adopt our preferred leading indicator (GI), the more...

In this paper we suggest the use of an internet job-search indicator (Google Index, GI) as the best leading indicator to predict the US unemployment rate. We perform a deep out-of-sample comparison of many forecasting models. With respect to the previous literature we concentrate on the monthly...

The online activity of Internet users has repeatedly been shown to provide a rich information set for various research fields. We focus on job-related searches on Google and their possible usefulness in the region of the Visegrad Group - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Even for...

Information about special events can improve economic forecasts substantially. However, due to the lack of timely quantitative data about these events, it has been difficult for professional forecasters to utilise such information in their forecasts. This paper investigates whether Internet...

La evidencia empírica para Colombia muestra relaciones tanto positivas como negativas entre el crecimiento del producto y el empleo, a diferencia de loencontrado en economías desarrolladas como la de los Estados Unidos. El presente trabajo usa modelos VAR para abordar explicaciones de ese...

This paper provides evidence on the existence of asymmetries in the underlying loss preferences for the difference between the spot and forward nominal exchange rate. We find that, in the context of both linear and non-linear loss functions, the underlying loss preferences for monthly data are...

This paper focuses on labour market dynamics in the EU 15 using Markov Chains for proportions of aggregate data for the first time in this literature. We apply a Bayesian approach, which employs a Monte Carlo Integration procedure that uncovers the entire empirical posterior distribution of...

In this paper, we propose a small-scale dynamic factor model for monitoring Argentine GDP in real time using economic data at mixed frequencies (monthly and quarterly). Our model not only produces a coincident index of the Argentine business cycle in striking accordance with professional...

Many macroeconomic forecasts and forecast updates like those from IMF and OECD typically involve both a model component, which is replicable, as well as intuition, which is non-replicable. Intuition is expert knowledge possessed by a forecaster. If forecast updates are progressive, forecast...

To find forecasts that are closest to Greenbook forecast from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, this paper looks for SPF cross-sectional percentile forecasts that are not encompassed by Greenbook forecast under Greenbook's loss preference, which exhibits time-varying asymmetry. To evaluate...