IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2006.06457.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Text as data: a machine learning-based approach to measuring uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Rickard Nyman
  • Paul Ormerod

Abstract

The Economic Policy Uncertainty index had gained considerable traction with both academics and policy practitioners. Here, we analyse news feed data to construct a simple, general measure of uncertainty in the United States using a highly cited machine learning methodology. Over the period January 1996 through May 2020, we show that the series unequivocally Granger-causes the EPU and there is no Granger-causality in the reverse direction

Suggested Citation

  • Rickard Nyman & Paul Ormerod, 2020. "Text as data: a machine learning-based approach to measuring uncertainty," Papers 2006.06457, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2006.06457
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.06457
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    2. Toda, Hiro Y. & Yamamoto, Taku, 1995. "Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1-2), pages 225-250.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kondoz, Mehmet & Kirikkaleli, Dervis & Athari, Seyed Alireza, 2021. "Time-frequency dependencies of financial and economic risks in South American countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 170-181.
    2. Yip, Pick Schen & Brooks, Robert & Do, Hung Xuan & Nguyen, Duc Khuong, 2020. "Dynamic volatility spillover effects between oil and agricultural products," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Istiak, Khandokar & Serletis, Apostolos, 2020. "Risk, uncertainty, and leverage," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 257-273.
    4. Yilanci, Veli & Kilci, Esra N., 2021. "The role of economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk in predicting prices of precious metals: Evidence from a time-varying bootstrap causality test," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Hanjo Odendaal & Monique Reid & Johann F. Kirsten, 2020. "Media‐Based Sentiment Indices as an Alternative Measure of Consumer Confidence," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(4), pages 409-434, December.
    6. Veli YILANCI & Sertaç HOPOĞLU & Hakan ERYÜZLÜ, 2023. "The impact of the economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks on tourism demand of Mexico," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(3(636), A), pages 147-164, Autumn.
    7. Stolbov, Mikhail & Shchepeleva, Maria & Karminsky, Alexander, 2022. "When central bank research meets Google search: A sentiment index of global financial stress," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    8. Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Elie Bouri & Naveed Raza & David Roubaud, 2019. "Asymmetric impacts of disaggregated oil price shocks on uncertainties and investor sentiment," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 901-921, April.
    9. Corrêa, Wilson Luiz Rotatori & Lopes, Luckas Sabioni, 2023. "Monetary policy transmission, productive activity, and inflation in Brazil: Does uncertainty matter?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    10. Ifedolapo Olabisi Olanipekun & Hasan Güngör & Godwin Olasehinde-Williams, 2019. "Unraveling the Causal Relationship Between Economic Policy Uncertainty and Exchange Market Pressure in BRIC Countries: Evidence From Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    11. Mehmet Balcilar & Gizem Uzuner & Festus Victor Bekun & Mark E. Wohar, 2023. "Housing price uncertainty and housing prices in the UK in a time-varying environment," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(2), pages 523-549, May.
    12. Dong, Minyi & Chang, Chun-Ping & Gong, Qiang & Chu, Yin, 2019. "Revisiting global economic activity and crude oil prices: A wavelet analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 134-149.
    13. Koray Yıldırım & Neşe Algan & Harun Bal, 2024. "Investment Hysteresis: An Empirical Essay Turkish Case," Evaluation Review, , vol. 48(1), pages 143-176, February.
    14. Ma, Xiaohan & Samaniego, Roberto, 2019. "Deconstructing uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 22-41.
    15. Nyman, Rickard & Kapadia, Sujit & Tuckett, David, 2021. "News and narratives in financial systems: Exploiting big data for systemic risk assessment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    16. Cai, Yifei & Wu, Yanrui, 2019. "Time-varied causality between US partisan conflict shock and crude oil return," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Ftiti, Zied & Hadhri, Sinda, 2019. "Can economic policy uncertainty, oil prices, and investor sentiment predict Islamic stock returns? A multi-scale perspective," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-55.
    18. Petar Sorić, 2018. "Consumer confidence as a GDP determinant in New EU Member States: a view from a time-varying perspective," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 261-282, May.
    19. Gizem Uzuner & Sudeshna Ghosh, 2021. "Do pandemics have an asymmetric effect on tourism in Italy?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1561-1579, October.
    20. M. E. Bontempi & M. Frigeri & R. Golinelli & M. Squadrani, 2019. "Uncertainty, Perception and the Internet," Working Papers wp1134, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2006.06457. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.