IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/26505.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does High Frequency Social Media Data Improve Forecasts of Low Frequency Consumer Confidence Measures?

Author

Listed:
  • Steven F. Lehrer
  • Tian Xie
  • Tao Zeng

Abstract

Social media data presents challenges for forecasters since one must convert text into data and deal with issues related to these measures being collected at different frequencies and volumes than traditional financial data. In this paper, we use a deep learning algorithm to measure sentiment within Twitter messages on an hourly basis and introduce a new method to undertake MIDAS that allows for a weaker discounting of historical data that is well-suited for this new data source. To evaluate the performance of approach relative to alternative MIDAS strategies, we conduct an out of sample forecasting exercise for the consumer confidence index with both traditional econometric strategies and machine learning algorithms. Irrespective of the estimator used to conduct forecasts, our results show that (i) including consumer sentiment measures from Twitter greatly improves forecast accuracy, and (ii) there are substantial gains from our proposed MIDAS procedure relative to common alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven F. Lehrer & Tian Xie & Tao Zeng, 2019. "Does High Frequency Social Media Data Improve Forecasts of Low Frequency Consumer Confidence Measures?," NBER Working Papers 26505, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26505
    Note: AP
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w26505.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreou, Elena & Ghysels, Eric & Kourtellos, Andros, 2010. "Regression models with mixed sampling frequencies," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 158(2), pages 246-261, October.
    2. Patrick Bajari & Denis Nekipelov & Stephen P. Ryan & Miaoyu Yang, 2015. "Machine Learning Methods for Demand Estimation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 481-485, May.
    3. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2012. "Comovement and Predictability Relationships Between Bonds and the Cross-section of Stocks," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 57-87.
    4. Steven Lehrer & Tian Xie, 2017. "Box Office Buzz: Does Social Media Data Steal the Show from Model Uncertainty When Forecasting for Hollywood?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(5), pages 749-755, December.
    5. Brown, Gregory W. & Cliff, Michael T., 2004. "Investor sentiment and the near-term stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    6. Lieven Baele, 2010. "The Determinants of Stock and Bond Return Comovements," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(6), pages 2374-2428, June.
    7. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    8. Fulvio Corsi, 2009. "A Simple Approximate Long-Memory Model of Realized Volatility," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 174-196, Spring.
    9. Felix Chan & Robert B. Durand & Joyce Khuu & Lee A. Smales, 2017. "The Validity of Investor Sentiment Proxies," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 473-477, September.
    10. Lieven Baele & Geert Bekaert & Koen Inghelbrecht, 2007. "The determinants of stock and bond return comovements," Working Paper Research 119, National Bank of Belgium.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steven F. Lehrer & Tian Xie, 2022. "The Bigger Picture: Combining Econometrics with Analytics Improves Forecasts of Movie Success," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 189-210, January.
    2. Lahiri, Kajal & Yang, Cheng, 2022. "Boosting tax revenues with mixed-frequency data in the aftermath of COVID-19: The case of New York," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 545-566.
    3. Qiu, Yue, 2020. "Forecasting the Consumer Confidence Index with tree-based MIDAS regressions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 247-256.
    4. Algaba, Andres & Borms, Samuel & Boudt, Kris & Verbeken, Brecht, 2023. "Daily news sentiment and monthly surveys: A mixed-frequency dynamic factor model for nowcasting consumer confidence," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 266-278.
    5. Lehrer, Steven & Xie, Tian & Zhang, Xinyu, 2021. "Social media sentiment, model uncertainty, and volatility forecasting," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Daniele Ballinari & Simon Behrendt, 2021. "How to gauge investor behavior? A comparison of online investor sentiment measures," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 169-204, June.

    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. Seo, Sung Won & Kim, Jun Sik, 2015. "The information content of option-implied information for volatility forecasting with investor sentiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 106-120.
    2. Kim, Jun Sik & Ryu, Doojin & Seo, Sung Won, 2014. "Investor sentiment and return predictability of disagreement," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 166-178.
    3. Ghysels, Eric & Qian, Hang, 2019. "Estimating MIDAS regressions via OLS with polynomial parameter profiling," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 1-16.
    4. Bethke, Sebastian & Gehde-Trapp, Monika & Kempf, Alexander, 2015. "Investor sentiment, flight-to-quality, and corporate bond comovement," CFR Working Papers 13-06 [rev.3], University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    5. Bethke, Sebastian & Gehde-Trapp, Monika & Kempf, Alexander, 2017. "Investor sentiment, flight-to-quality, and corporate bond comovement," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 112-132.
    6. Demirovic, Amer & Guermat, Cherif & Tucker, Jon, 2017. "The relationship between equity and bond returns: An empirical investigation," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 47-64.
    7. Chevallier, Julien, 2011. "Evaluating the carbon-macroeconomy relationship: Evidence from threshold vector error-correction and Markov-switching VAR models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2634-2656.
    8. Philippe Mueller & Andrea Vedolin & Hao Zhou, 2019. "Short-Run Bond Risk Premia," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-34, September.
    9. Bams, Dennis & Blanchard, Gildas & Honarvar, Iman & Lehnert, Thorsten, 2017. "Does oil and gold price uncertainty matter for the stock market?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 270-285.
    10. Philippe Mueller & Andrea Vedolin & Yu-min Yen, 2012. "Bond Variance Risk Premia," FMG Discussion Papers dp699, Financial Markets Group.
    11. Petar Sabtchevsky & Paul Whelan & Andrea Vedolin & Philippe Mueller, 2017. "Variance Risk Premia on Stocks and Bonds," 2017 Meeting Papers 1161, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2019. "Macroeconomic environment, money demand and portfolio choice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 357-374.
    13. Andrew J. Patton & Yasin Simsek, 2023. "Generalized Autoregressive Score Trees and Forests," Papers 2305.18991, arXiv.org.
    14. Haugom, Erik & Ray, Rina, 2017. "Heterogeneous traders, liquidity, and volatility in crude oil futures market," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 36-49.
    15. Mohammad Alomari & Abdel Razzaq Al rababa’a & Ghaith El-Nader & Ahmad Alkhataybeh, 2021. "Who’s behind the wheel? The role of social and media news in driving the stock–bond correlation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 959-1007, October.
    16. Bethke, Sebastian & Kempf, Alexander & Trapp, Monika, 2013. "The correlation puzzle: The interaction of bond and risk correlation," CFR Working Papers 13-06, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    17. van Zundert, Jeroen, 2018. "Empirical studies on the cross-section of corporate bond and stock markets," Other publications TiSEM 338205fc-a031-4e06-a636-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Alomari, Mohammad & Al Rababa’a, Abdel Razzaq & El-Nader, Ghaith & Alkhataybeh, Ahmad & Ur Rehman, Mobeen, 2021. "Examining the effects of news and media sentiments on volatility and correlation: Evidence from the UK," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 280-297.
    19. Baker, Malcolm & Wurgler, Jeffrey & Yuan, Yu, 2012. "Global, local, and contagious investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 272-287.
    20. Yang, Jianlei & Yang, Chunpeng, 2021. "The impact of mixed-frequency geopolitical risk on stock market returns," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 226-240.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

    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:nbr:nberwo:26505. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.