Talk:Real-time data

Latest comment: 7 years ago by ExpertIdeasBot in topic Dr. Timmermann's comment on this article

Dr. Hughes Hallett's comment on this article edit

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End para 1: ....data available.[5]. Indeed, Orphanides argues that if we wish to uncover the policymakers preferences and intentions, then the estimates need to be made from real time data because there is no point in trying to deduce their reactions from data they did not have at the time (ex-post or revised data). In that context, Orphanides (2001, 2003) is able to demonstrate, using real time data, that the Federal Reserve was not lax or weak in dealing with inflationary pressures in the 1970s and early 1980s, but misinformed about the severity of the recession (how much GDP was below its potential) at the time. As a result, it tended to follow more expansionary policies that were actually merited.Similarly, Gebeding et al (2004) are able to show that the German Central Bank followed a monetary supply policy rule in the 1980s; not, as the ex-post data implies, an inflation targeting interest rate rule. Finally, Hughes Hallett and Lewis (2015), examine the interactions between fiscal and monetary policies and find that the European Central Bank does react to fiscal policies in the Euro-zone, tightening monetary policies if public sector debt (not deficits) are forecast to rise in real time. But in ex-post data, it relaxes monetary policy to accommodate fiscal expansions that have been found necessary in a recession.

Real time fiscal policy examples are less common. Bernoth et al (2015) argue that discretionary fiscal policies react to real time data on economic and fiscal performance, whereas automatic stabilisers necessarily respond to the true state of the economy as revealed (eventually) in ex-post data. Using a combination of real time and ex-post data then shows that the automatic stabilisers tend to be weaker in the OECD economies than is generally assumed. This has big implications for the joint use of fiscal and monetary policies. In another exercise, Hughes Hallett et al (2012) point out that budget controls, such as the deficit limits in the Euro-zone's Fiscal Compact, have to be conducted in real time. That is, they have to be applied to real time estimates of the structural (cyclically corrected) deficit - the true measure of the structural deficit only becoming known later as ex-post, revised data becomes available. As a result false alarms or missed alarms are as frequent as correctly identified breaches of the deficit limits in OECD economies at the point where decisions have to be made.

The next paragraph should be a new section headed "Data sets"

Extra references quoted: Orphanides, Athanasios (2001). “Monetary Policy Rules Based on Real Time Data.” The American Economic Review, 91, 964–85.

Orphanides, Athanasios, 2003. "Historical monetary policy analysis and the Taylor rule," Journal of Monetary Economics, 50, 983-1022

Bernoth, Kerstin, Andrew Hughes Hallett (2015), “The Cyclicality of Automatic and Discretionary Fiscal Policy: What Can Real Time Data Tell Us?”, Macroeconomic Dynamics,19, 221-43

Hughes Hallett, Andrew, Rasmus Kattai and John Lewis (2012), “How Reliable are Cyclically Adjusted Budget Balances in Real Time?” Contemporary Economic Policy, 30, 75-92.

Hughes Hallett, Andrew (2015), “Monetary Policy and Sovereign Debt: Does the ECB Take Euro-zone Fiscal Imbalances into Account?” Empirica, 41.


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  • Reference : Kerstin Bernoth & Andrew Hughes Hallet & John Lewis, 2008. "Did fiscal policy makers know what they were doing? Reassessing fiscal policy with real-time data," DNB Working Papers 169, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 19:49, 1 July 2016 (UTC)Reply

Dr. Timmermann's comment on this article edit

Dr. Timmermann has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:


The article should cite the work on a real-time business cycle indicator for the US economy now maintained by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank and originally proposed by Aruoba, Diebold and Scotti (Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2009). It should also mention the work on "nowcasting" by Banbura, Marta, D., D. Giannone, and L. Reichlin. 2011. Nowcasting, chap. 7 in M.P. Clements and D.F. Hendry (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Economic Forecasting, 193--224. Oxford University Press. The updating issues that arise when data observed at different frequencies (quarterly GDP, monthly industrial production, weekly payroll figures) should also be incorporated.


We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

We believe Dr. Timmermann has expertise on the topic of this article, since he has published relevant scholarly research:


  • Reference : Carlos Capistran & Allan Timmermann, 2008. "Forecast Combination With Entry and Exit of Experts," CREATES Research Papers 2008-55, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 16:08, 12 July 2016 (UTC)Reply