Title

Measuring economic conditions: an extension of the Stock/Watson methodology

Authors

Edinaldo Tebaldi, Bryant UniversityFollow
Logan Kelly, University of Wisconsin

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published by Routledge in Applied Economic Letters, volume 19 issue 18, 2012. Bryant users can access this article here.

Keywords

current index; leading index; regional; economic conditions; business cycle

Publisher

Routledge

Publication Source

Applied Economics Letters

Abstract

This study develops an economic indicator tailored to measure economic conditions at the state level by recognizing that a state's economy is an integrated part of the region and responds to both regional and national economic outlooks. This article applies our methodology to the state of Rhode Island. In the case of Rhode Island, the addition of a regional economic indicator appears to make a significant improvement over the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) of Philadelphia coincident index. Therefore, this preliminary study indicates that it is worthwhile to expand this project to include all 50 states.