A widespread method for now- and forecasting economic macro level parameters such as GDP growth rates are survey-based indicators which contain early information in contrast to official data. But surveys are commonly affected by nonresponding units which can produce biases if these missing...

This paper compares the German Gross Domestic Product between 1991 and 2008 with the Ifo business indicators. Because GDP is published quarterly but the Ifo indicators monthly, the most analyses compare these variables by merging the indicators to quarterly data. In this paper an alternative way...

It is well-known that nonresponse affects the results of surveys and can even cause bias due to selectivities if it cannot be regarded as missing at random. In contrast to household surveys, response behaviour in business surveys has been examined rarely in the literature. This paper is one of...

Seit 1949 erhebt das ifo Institut monatlich Daten zur wirtschaftlichen Lage der Unternehmen in Deutschland. Das Instrument der Datenerhebung ist, wie in vielen sozioökonomischen Disziplinen, die direkte Befragung der Firmen. Ein bekanntes Phänomen, das im Befragungsprozess auftreten kann, sind...