IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/car/carecp/22-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Using Natural Language Processing to Measure COVID-19-Induced Economic Policy Uncertainty for Canada and the US

Author

Abstract

We develop an economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index for Canada and the US using natural language processing (NLP) methods. Our EPU-NLP index is based on an application of several algorithms, including a rapid automatic keyword extraction algorithm (RAKE), a combination of the RoBERTa and the Sentence-BERT algorithms, a PyLucene search engine, and the GrapeNLP local grammar engine. For comparison purposes, we also develop an index based on a strictly Boolean index. We find that the EPU-NLP index captures COVID-19 related uncertainty better than the Boolean index. Using a structural VAR approach, we found that an economic policy uncertainty shock with EPU-NLP results in larger declines in real GDP, employment, industrial production and the TSX index than with EPU-Boolean for Canada. Similar results were also found for the US: an EPU-NLP shock led to larger declines in industrial production, employment, real personal consumption expenditure, and S&P500 than EPU-Boolean. The SVAR model showed an abrupt contraction in economic variables both for Canada and the US in line with the COVID-19 impact. Moreover, an uncertainty shock (with the EPU-NLP) caused a much larger contraction in economic variables for the period including the COVID-19 pandemic, than for the period before COVID-19.

Suggested Citation

  • Shafuillah Qureshi & Ba Chu & Fanny S. Demers & Michel Demers, 2022. "Using Natural Language Processing to Measure COVID-19-Induced Economic Policy Uncertainty for Canada and the US," Carleton Economic Papers 22-01, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:car:carecp:22-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://carleton.ca/economics/wp-content/uploads/cewp-22-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Altig, Dave & Baker, Scott & Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nicholas & Bunn, Philip & Chen, Scarlet & Davis, Steven J. & Leather, Julia & Meyer, Brent & Mihaylov, Emil & Mizen, Paul & Parker, Nicholas &, 2020. "Economic uncertainty before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Stephen J. Terry, 2020. "COVID-Induced Economic Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 26983, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. 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.
    4. Dave Altig & Scott Baker & Jose Maria Barrero & Nick Bloom & Philip Bunn & Scarlet Chen & Steven J Davis & Julia Leather & Brent Meyer & Emil Mihaylov & Paul Mizen & Nick Parker & Thomas Renault & Paw, 2020. "Economic uncertainty before and during the Covid-19 pandemic," Bank of England working papers 876, Bank of England.
    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. Miescu, Mirela & Rossi, Raffaele, 2021. "COVID-19-induced shocks and uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Peng-Fei Dai & Xiong Xiong & Zhifeng Liu & Toan Luu Duc Huynh & Jianjun Sun, 2021. "Preventing crash in stock market: The role of economic policy uncertainty during COVID-19," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Kevin Moran & Dalibor Stevanovic & Adam Kader Touré, 2022. "Macroeconomic uncertainty and the COVID‐19 pandemic: Measure and impacts on the Canadian economy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 379-405, February.
    4. Li, Xiang, 2022. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate debt maturity?," IWH Discussion Papers 5/2022, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    5. Morita, Hiroshi & Ono, Taiki, 2022. "COVID-19 Uncertainty Index in Japan: Newspaper-Based Measures and Economic Activities," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-116, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    6. Zribi, Wissal & Boufateh, Talel & Lahouel, Bechir Ben & Urom, Christian, 2024. "Uncertainty shocks, investor sentiment and environmental performance: Novel evidence from a PVAR approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    7. Akyildirim, Erdinc & Cepni, Oguzhan & Pham, Linh & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2022. "How connected is the agricultural commodity market to the news-based investor sentiment?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    8. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:special2:p:648-665 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Szczygielski, Jan Jakub & Charteris, Ailie & Obojska, Lidia & Brzeszczyński, Janusz, 2025. "Energy in turmoil: Industry resilience to uncertainty during the global energy crisis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).
    10. Jialei Jiang & Eun-Mi Park & Seong-Taek Park, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 on Economic Sustainability—A Case Study of Fluctuation in Stock Prices for China and South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Andrea Carriero & Todd E. Clark & Massimiliano Marcellino & Elmar Mertens, 2020. "Measuring Uncertainty and Its Effects in the COVID-19 Era," Working Papers 20-32R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 05 Jan 2022.
    12. Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Demir, Ender & Tarazi, Amine, 2021. "Economic uncertainty and bank stability: Conventional vs. Islamic banking," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    13. Hensvik, Lena & Le Barbanchon, Thomas & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Job search during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    14. Aprigliano, Valentina & Emiliozzi, Simone & Guaitoli, Gabriele & Luciani, Andrea & Marcucci, Juri & Monteforte, Libero, 2023. "The power of text-based indicators in forecasting Italian economic activity," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 791-808.
    15. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2020. "COVID-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 51(2 (Summer), pages 329-383.
    16. Batten, Jonathan A. & Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Demir, Ender & Gozgor, Giray, 2023. "Does globalization affect credit market controls?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 21-43.
    17. Jamie L. Cross & Chenghan Hou & Gary Koop, 2021. "Macroeconomic Forecasting with Large Stochastic Volatility in Mean VARs," Working Papers No 04/2021, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    18. Zhao, Congyu & Zhai, Xuan & Tao, Miaomiao & Che, Shuai, 2024. "Enlarged scars: The effects of economic policy uncertainty on electricity accessibility and urban-rural disparity," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    19. Sakariyahu, Rilwan & Lawal, Rodiat & Adigun, Rasheed & Paterson, Audrey & Johan, Sofia, 2024. "One crash, too many: Global uncertainty, sentiment factors and cryptocurrency market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    20. Fiori, Giuseppe & Scoccianti, Filippo, 2023. "The economic effects of firm-level uncertainty: Evidence using subjective expectations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 92-105.
    21. Ito, Asei & Lim, Jaehwan & Zhang, Hongyong, 2023. "Catching the political leader's signal: Economic policy uncertainty and firm investment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    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:car:carecp:22-01. 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: Court Lindsay (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.