Exploring the dynamics of business survey data using Markov models

Computational Management Science - Tập 16 - Trang 621-649 - 2019
W. Hölzl1, S. Kaniovski1, Y. Kaniovski2
1Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO), Vienna, Austria
2Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy

Tóm tắt

Business tendency surveys are widely used for monitoring economic activity. They provide timely feedback on the current business conditions and outlook. We identify the unobserved macroeconomic factors behind the distribution of quarterly responses by Austrian firms on the questions concerning the current business climate and production. The aggregate models identify two macroeconomic regimes: upturn and downturn. Their dynamics is modeled using a regime-switching matrix. The micro-founded models envision dependent responses by the firms, so that a favorable or an adverse unobserved common macroeconomic factor increases the frequency of optimistic or pessimistic responses. The corresponding conditional transition probabilities are estimated using a coupling scheme. Extensions address the sector dimension and introduce dynamic common tendencies modeled with a hidden Markov chain.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Alfó M, Bartolucci F (2015) Latent variable models for the analysis of socio-economic data. Metron 7(2):151–154 Anderson O (1951) Konjunkturtest und Statistik. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Quantifizierung von Testergebnissen. Allg Stat Arch 35:209–220 Bachmann R, Elstner S (2015) Firm optimism and pessimism. Eur Econ Rev 79:297–325 Boreiko DV, Kaniovski S, Kaniovski YM, Ch Pflug G (2017) Identification of hidden Markov chains governing dependent credit-rating migrations. Commun Stat Theory Methods 48:75–87 Boreiko DV, Kaniovski YM, Pflug GCh (2016) Modeling dependent credit rating transitions—a comparison of coupling schemes and empirical evidence. Cent Eur J Oper Res 24(4):989–1007 Caballero RJ, Engel E (2003) Adjustment is much slower than you think, Working Paper, MIT Cesaroni T (2011) The cyclical behavior of the Italian business survey data. Empir Econ 41:747–768 Cox BG, Binder DA, Chinnappa BN, Christianson A, Colledge MJ, Kott PS (2011) Business survey methods. Wiley, New York European Commission (2014) A user manual to the joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumers surveys, Brussels, 2014 Filardo AJ (1994) Business-cycle phases and their transitional dynamics. J Bus Econ Stat 12:299–308 Filardo AJ, Gordon SF (1998) Business cycle durations. J Econom 85:99–123 Frühwirth-Schnatter S (2006) Finite mixture and Markov switching models. Springer series in statistics. Springer, Berlin Geil P, Zimmermann K (1996) Quantifizierung qualitativer Daten. In: Oppenländer KH (ed) Konjunkturindikatoren: Fakten, Analysen, Verwendung. Oldenbourg, München, pp 108–130 Goldrian G (2007) Handbook of survey-based business cycle analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham Hölzl W, Kaniovski S, Reinstaller A (2015) The exposure of technology and knowledge intense sectors to the business cycle. Bull Appl Econ 2(1):1–19 Hölzl W, Schwarz G (2014) Der WIFO-Konjunkturtest: Methodik und Prognoseeigenschaften. WIFO Monatsberichte 87(12):835–850 Hamilton JD (1989) A new approach to the economic analysis of nonstationary time series and the business cycle. Econometrica 57:357–384 Kaniovski YM, Pflug GCh (2007) Risk assessment for credit portfolios: a coupled Markov chain model. J Bank Finance 31(8):2303–2323 Kaufmann D, Scheufele R (2017) Business tendency survey and macroeconomic fluctuations. Int J Forecast 33(4):878–893 Knetsch Th (2005) Evaluating the German inventory cycle using data from the Ifo business survey. In: Strum J-E (ed) Ifo survey data in business cycle and monetary policy analysis. Springer, Berlin, pp 61–92 Müller C, Köberl E (2007) The speed of adjustment to demand shocks: a Markov-chain measurement using micro panel data, KOF Swiss Economic Institute at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Working Paper, No. 170 OECD (2003) Business tendency surveys: a handbook. OECD, Paris Skrondal A, Rabe-Hesketh S (2007) Latent variable modelling: a survey. Scand. J. Stat. 34(4):712–745 Stock JH, Watson MW (2011) Dynamic factor models. In: Clements MP, Hendry DF (eds) The Oxford handbook of economic forecasting. Oxford University Press, Oxford Wozabal D, Hochreiter R (2012) A coupled Markov chain approach to credit risk modeling. J Econ Dyn Control 36(3):403–415