This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the current period performance of the OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for 21 OECD Member countries and three zone aggregates for which CLIs are available for a longer time period. The main aim of the current analysis on CLIs is to further...

We decompose variations in the aggregate exit rate from unemployment to employment into two factors: i) Changes in the arrival rate of acceptable job offers; and ii) changes in the composition of the unemployment pool in terms of average employability. We argue that the former of these factors...

The deviation cycles in the manufacturing industry of nine OECD-countries are identified by applying the Christiano-Fitzgerald band-pass filter. Turning points, low- and high-growth phases and other descriptive statistics are derived from these deviation cycles. A regression based test statistic...

The report summarizes the present survey practices in Europe and some countries on other continents. The study was launched on behalf of the European Commission and the OECD in April-July 2006. The aim of the project was to identify the state of present survey practices of the institutions that...

This paper aims at the production of a chronology for the EU15 business cycle by comparing parametric and non-parametric procedures on monthly and quarterly data as well in a combined approach. The main innovation is the joint use of the monthly series for the EU15 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)...

A spectral analysis of the Australian time series for the investment and savings ratios on quarterly data over the period from September 1959 to December 2005 reveals that the major cyclical components of the savings and investment ratios cohere strongly. This suggests there is a medium to long...

Effective business cycle analysis, and indeed the monitoring of a countries economic performance from a policy perspective, requires access to timely high quality short-term economic statistics (STES). Consequently in recent years there has been a lot of pressure on national statistics...

This paper evaluates the performances of Japanese leading indicators in predicting business cycle turning points. We extract the business cycle component in leading indicators using the frequency selective filter proposed by Baxter and King (1999), and we try to clarify empirically whether or...

Consumer sentiment surveys are regularly conducted in at least forty-five countries. The surveys are based on the premise that data on consumer expectations represent a leading indicator of future changes in the macro economy. A series of Granger causality tests indicated that measures of...