This paper exploits a data rich environment to provide direct econometric estimates of time-varying macroeconomic uncertainty, defined as the common volatility in the unforecastable component of a large number of economic indicators. Our estimates display significant independent variations from...

We introduce a new US uncertainty index which is more sensitive to consumer spending and therefore reflects households’ decisions. We find evidence that macroeconomic uncertainty shocks impose negative, statistically significant, and long-lasting effects on consumption, income and financial...