IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/fmpwps/34.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nowcasting unemployment rates with Google searches: Evidence from the Visegrad Group countries

Author

Listed:
  • Pavlicek, Jaroslav
  • Kristoufek, Ladislav

Abstract

The online activity of Internet users has repeatedly been shown to provide a rich information set for various research fields. We focus on job-related searches on Google and their possible usefulness in the region of the Visegrad Group - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Even for rather small economies, the online searches of inhabitants can be successfully utilized for macroeconomic predictions. Specifically, we study unemployment rates and their interconnection with job-related searches. We show that Google searches enhance nowcasting models of unemployment rates for the Czech Republic and Hungary whereas for Poland and Slovakia, the results are mixed.

Suggested Citation

  • Pavlicek, Jaroslav & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2015. "Nowcasting unemployment rates with Google searches: Evidence from the Visegrad Group countries," FinMaP-Working Papers 34, Collaborative EU Project FinMaP - Financial Distortions and Macroeconomic Performance: Expectations, Constraints and Interaction of Agents.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:fmpwps:34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/108899/1/821350919.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fondeur, Y. & Karamé, F., 2013. "Can Google data help predict French youth unemployment?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 117-125.
    2. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    3. Nikolaos Askitas & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2009. "Google Econometrics and Unemployment Forecasting," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 55(2), pages 107-120.
    4. Ilaria Bordino & Stefano Battiston & Guido Caldarelli & Matthieu Cristelli & Antti Ukkonen & Ingmar Weber, 2012. "Web Search Queries Can Predict Stock Market Volumes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Meltem Gulenay Chadwick & Gonul Sengul, 2015. "Nowcasting the Unemployment Rate in Turkey : Let's ask Google," Central Bank Review, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, vol. 15(3), pages 15-40.
    6. Scott Baker & Andrey Fradkin, 2011. "What Drives Job Search? Evidence from Google Search Data," Discussion Papers 10-020, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    7. Diebold, Francis X & Mariano, Roberto S, 2002. "Comparing Predictive Accuracy," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 134-144, January.
    8. Hyunyoung Choi & Hal Varian, 2012. "Predicting the Present with Google Trends," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(s1), pages 2-9, June.
    9. Mondria, Jordi & Wu, Thomas & Zhang, Yi, 2010. "The determinants of international investment and attention allocation: Using internet search query data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 85-95, September.
    10. Ladislav Kristoufek, 2013. "Can Google Trends search queries contribute to risk diversification?," Papers 1310.1444, arXiv.org.
    11. Simeon Vosen & Torsten Schmidt, 2011. "Forecasting private consumption: survey‐based indicators vs. Google trends," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 565-578, September.
    12. Michael S. Drake & Darren T. Roulstone & Jacob R. Thornock, 2012. "Investor Information Demand: Evidence from Google Searches Around Earnings Announcements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 1001-1040, September.
    13. Jeremy Ginsberg & Matthew H. Mohebbi & Rajan S. Patel & Lynnette Brammer & Mark S. Smolinski & Larry Brilliant, 2009. "Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7232), pages 1012-1014, February.
    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. Chiara Sotis, 2021. "How do Google searches for symptoms, news and unemployment interact during COVID-19? A Lotka–Volterra analysis of google trends data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(6), pages 2001-2016, December.
    2. Tierney, Heather L.R. & Kim, Jiyoon (June) & Nazarov, Zafar, 2018. "The Effects of Temporal Aggregation on Search Engine Data," MPRA Paper 84474, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Nakamura, Nobuyuki & Suzuki, Aya, 2021. "COVID-19 and the intentions to migrate from developing countries: Evidence from online search activities in Southeast Asia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Havranek, Tomas & Zeynalov, Ayaz, 2018. "Forecasting Tourist Arrivals with Google Trends and Mixed Frequency Data," EconStor Preprints 187420, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Tomas Havranek & Ayaz Zeynalov, 2021. "Forecasting tourist arrivals: Google Trends meets mixed-frequency data," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(1), pages 129-148, February.
    6. Jianchun Fang & Wanshan Wu & Zhou Lu & Eunho Cho, 2019. "Using Baidu Index To Nowcast Mobile Phone Sales In China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 83-96, March.
    7. Nikolaos Askitas, 2015. "Google search activity data and breaking trends," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 206-206, November.
    8. Samvel S. Lazaryan & Nikita E. German, 2018. "Forecasting Current GDP Dynamics With Google Search Data," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 6, pages 83-94, December.
    9. Simionescu, Mihaela & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2017. "Big Data and Unemployment Analysis," GLO Discussion Paper Series 81, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Pater, Robert & Szkola, Jaroslaw & Kozak, Marcin, 2019. "A method for measuring detailed demand for workers' competences," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-30.
    11. Simionescu, Mihaela & Raišienė, Agota Giedrė, 2021. "A bridge between sentiment indicators: What does Google Trends tell us about COVID-19 pandemic and employment expectations in the EU new member states?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Abay,Kibrom A. & Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere & Woldemichael,Andinet, 2020. "Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9268, The World Bank.
    13. Mihaela, Simionescu, 2020. "Improving unemployment rate forecasts at regional level in Romania using Google Trends," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    14. Abay, Kibrom A. & Ibrahim, Hosam, 2020. "Winners and losers from COVID-19: Evidence from Google search data for Egypt," MENA policy notes 8, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Federico Botta & Helen Susannah Moat & Tobias Preis, 2020. "Measuring the size of a crowd using Instagram," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(9), pages 1690-1703, November.
    16. M. Elshendy & A. Fronzetti Colladon & E. Battistoni & P. A. Gloor, 2021. "Using four different online media sources to forecast the crude oil price," Papers 2105.09154, arXiv.org.
    17. Rodrigo Mulero & Alfredo García-Hiernaux, 2021. "Forecasting Spanish unemployment with Google Trends and dimension reduction techniques," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 329-349, September.
    18. Tuhkuri, Joonas, 2016. "ETLAnow: A Model for Forecasting with Big Data – Forecasting Unemployment with Google Searches in Europe," ETLA Reports 54, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    19. Gulsah Senturk, 2022. "Can Google Search Data Improve the Unemployment Rate Forecasting Model? An Empirical Analysis for Turkey," Journal of Economic Policy Researches, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 229-244, July.
    20. Rodrigo Mulero & Alfredo Garcia-Hiernaux, 2023. "Forecasting unemployment with Google Trends: age, gender and digital divide," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 587-605, August.

    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. Jaroslav Pavlicek & Ladislav Kristoufek, 2014. "Can Google searches help nowcast and forecast unemployment rates in the Visegrad Group countries?," Papers 1408.6639, arXiv.org.
    2. D’Amuri, Francesco & Marcucci, Juri, 2017. "The predictive power of Google searches in forecasting US unemployment," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 801-816.
    3. Zeynalov, Ayaz, 2017. "Forecasting Tourist Arrivals in Prague: Google Econometrics," MPRA Paper 83268, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Zeynalov, Ayaz, 2014. "Nowcasting Tourist Arrivals to Prague: Google Econometrics," MPRA Paper 60945, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Long Wen & Chang Liu & Haiyan Song, 2019. "Forecasting tourism demand using search query data: A hybrid modelling approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(3), pages 309-329, May.
    6. Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2015. "Power-law correlations in finance-related Google searches, and their cross-correlations with volatility and traded volume: Evidence from the Dow Jones Industrial components," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 428(C), pages 194-205.
    7. Chauvet, Marcelle & Gabriel, Stuart & Lutz, Chandler, 2016. "Mortgage default risk: New evidence from internet search queries," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 91-111.
    8. Jichang Dong & Wei Dai & Ying Liu & Lean Yu & Jie Wang, 2019. "Forecasting Chinese Stock Market Prices using Baidu Search Index with a Learning-Based Data Collection Method," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(05), pages 1605-1629, September.
    9. Götz, Thomas B. & Knetsch, Thomas A., 2019. "Google data in bridge equation models for German GDP," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 45-66.
    10. Jianchun Fang & Wanshan Wu & Zhou Lu & Eunho Cho, 2019. "Using Baidu Index To Nowcast Mobile Phone Sales In China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 83-96, March.
    11. Zhongchen Song & Tom Coupé, 2023. "Predicting Chinese consumption series with Baidu," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 429-463, July.
    12. Coble, David & Pincheira, Pablo, 2017. "Nowcasting Building Permits with Google Trends," MPRA Paper 76514, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Tuhkuri, Joonas, 2016. "Forecasting Unemployment with Google Searches," ETLA Working Papers 35, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    14. Benedikt Maas, 2020. "Short‐term forecasting of the US unemployment rate," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 394-411, April.
    15. Siliverstovs, Boriss & Wochner, Daniel S., 2018. "Google Trends and reality: Do the proportions match?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 1-23.
    16. Bangwayo-Skeete, Prosper F. & Skeete, Ryan W., 2015. "Can Google data improve the forecasting performance of tourist arrivals? Mixed-data sampling approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 454-464.
    17. Simionescu, Mihaela & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2017. "Big Data and Unemployment Analysis," GLO Discussion Paper Series 81, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Ladislav Kristoufek, 2013. "Can Google Trends search queries contribute to risk diversification?," Papers 1310.1444, arXiv.org.
    19. Daniel Borup & Erik Christian Montes Schütte, 2022. "In Search of a Job: Forecasting Employment Growth Using Google Trends," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 186-200, January.
    20. van der Wielen, Wouter & Barrios, Salvador, 2021. "Economic sentiment during the COVID pandemic: Evidence from search behaviour in the EU," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    unemployment; Google Trends; nowcasting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

    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:zbw:fmpwps:34. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vakiede.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.