This study introduces a monthly coincident indicator for consumption in Germany based on Google Trends data on web search activity. In real-time nowcasting experiments the indicator outperforms common survey-based indicators in predicting consumption. Unlike those indicators, it provides...

We present new results for the likelihood-based analysis of the dynamic factor model that possibly includes intercepts and explanatory variables. The latent factors are modelled by stochastic processes. The idiosyncratic disturbances are specified as autoregressive processes with mutually...

The authors replicate and extend the Monte Carlo experiment presented in Doz, Giannone and Reichlin (A Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Approach For Large, Approximate Dynamic Factor Models, Review of Economics and Statistics, 2012) on alternative (time-domain based) methods for extracting dynamic...

This paper discusses whether differences in the data structure of observational and experimental studies should lead to different strategies for variable selection. On the one hand, it is argued that outliers in the predictor variables have to be treated differently in the two kinds of studies....