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Can news help measure economic sentiment? An application in COVID-19 times

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo Aguilar

    (Banco de España)

  • Corinna Ghirelli

    (Banco de España)

  • Matías Pacce

    (Banco de España)

  • Alberto Urtasun

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

We construct a new newspaper-based sentiment indicator for Spain that allows us to monitor Spanish economic activity in real-time. As opposed to the traditional survey-based confidence indicators that are released at the end of the month, our indicator can be constructed on a daily basis and updated in real-time. We compare our proposed index with the popular Economic Sentiment Indicator of the European Commission, and we show that ours performs significantly better in nowcasting the Spanish GDP. In addition, our indicator proves to be helpful in order to predict the current COVID-19 recession from an earlier date. All in all, our indicator performs similarly to or even outperforms other soft indicators, with the advantage of being updated daily. Thus, it provides a valuable option when measuring the confidence in the economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo Aguilar & Corinna Ghirelli & Matías Pacce & Alberto Urtasun, 2020. "Can news help measure economic sentiment? An application in COVID-19 times," Working Papers 2027, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:2027
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Iustina Alina Boitan & Emilia Mioara Campeanu & Sanja Sever Malis, 2021. "Economic Sentiment Perceptions During COVID-19 Pandemic – A European Cross-Country Impact Assessment," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(Special15), pages 982-982, November.
    2. Erik Andres-Escayola & Corinna Ghirelli & Luis Molina & Javier J. Pérez & Elena Vidal, 2022. "Using newspapers for textual indicators: which and how many?," Working Papers 2235, Banco de España.
    3. Anastasiou, Dimitris & Ballis, Antonis & Drakos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Constructing a positive sentiment index for COVID-19: Evidence from G20 stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Deimante Teresiene & Greta Keliuotyte-Staniuleniene & Yiyi Liao & Rasa Kanapickiene & Ruihui Pu & Siyan Hu & Xiao-Guang Yue, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer and Business Confidence Indicators," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Saiz, Lorena & Ashwin, Julian & Kalamara, Eleni, 2021. "Nowcasting euro area GDP with news sentiment: a tale of two crises," Working Paper Series 2616, European Central Bank.
    6. Martin Baumgaertner & Johannes Zahner, 2021. "Whatever it takes to understand a central banker - Embedding their words using neural networks," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202130, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. Vu M. Ngo & Toan L. D. Huynh & Phuc V. Nguyen & Huan H. Nguyen, 2022. "Public sentiment towards economic sanctions in the Russia–Ukraine war," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 69(5), pages 564-573, November.
    8. María del Pilar Cruz N. & Hugo Peralta V. & Juan Pablo Cova M., 2022. "Utilización de noticias de prensa como indicador de confianza económica en tiempo real," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 938, Central Bank of Chile.
    9. Larissa Batrancea, 2021. "Empirical Evidence Regarding the Impact of Economic Growth and Inflation on Economic Sentiment and Household Consumption," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    nowcasting; GDP; recession; real-time; textual analysis; sentiment indicators; soft indicators;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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