This paper introduces the OECD Weekly Tracker of economic activity for 46 OECD and G20 countries using Google Trends search data. The Tracker performs well in pseudo-real time simulations including around the COVID-19 crisis. The underlying model adds to the previous Google Trends literature in...

In carrying out its banking supervision tasks as part of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the European Central Bank (ECB) collects and disseminates data on significant and less significant institutions. To ensure harmonised supervisory reporting standards, the data are represented through...

We show that the news is a rich source of data on distressed firm links that drive firm- level and aggregate risks. The news tends to report about links in which a less popular firm is distressed and may contaminate a more popular firm. This constitutes a contagion channel that yields...

Machine learning algorithms are now frequently used in sensitive contexts that substantially affect the course of human lives, such as credit lending or criminal justice. This is driven by the idea that 'objective' machines base their decisions solely on facts and remain unaffected by human...

There is a long-standing economic research literature on the impact of technological innovation and automation in general on employment and economic growth. Traditional economic models trade off a negative displacement or substitution effect against a positive complementarity effect on...

In this paper we develop a framework for analysing the impact of AI on occupations. Leaving aside the debates on robotisation, digitalisation and online platforms as well as workplace automation, we focus on the occupational impact of AI that is driven by rapid progress in machine learning. In...