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Credit market expectations and the business cycle: evidence from a textual analysis approach

Author

Listed:
  • Mardoqueo Arteaga

    (Fordham University)

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between errors in credit spread expectations and key macroeconomic indicators over the period 1948 to 2022. By employing textual analysis on Wall Street Journal title pages, I construct a historical proxy for credit market sentiment, extending the data on credit spread expectations back to 1919. The Survey of Professional Forecasters provides the training data for this model. The analysis reveals that increases in credit spread expectation errors, interpreted as signals of heightened market optimism, are robust predictors of subsequent declines in economic activity. Most saliently, a one-standard deviation increase in forecast errors is associated with a 1.47 percentage point decline in GDP growth, highlighting the significant role of credit market sentiment in driving macroeconomic cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • Mardoqueo Arteaga, 2024. "Credit market expectations and the business cycle: evidence from a textual analysis approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(3), pages 1242-1253.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-24-00367
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Gilchrist & Egon Zakrajsek, 2012. "Credit Spreads and Business Cycle Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1692-1720, June.
    2. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    3. Stephen Hansen & Michael McMahon & Andrea Prat, 2018. "Transparency and Deliberation Within the FOMC: A Computational Linguistics Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 801-870.
    4. Pedro Bordalo & Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer, 2018. "Diagnostic Expectations and Credit Cycles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(1), pages 199-227, February.
    5. David López-Salido & Jeremy C. Stein & Egon Zakrajšek, 2017. "Credit-Market Sentiment and the Business Cycle," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(3), pages 1373-1426.
    6. Zheng Tracy Ke & Bryan T. Kelly & Dacheng Xiu, 2019. "Predicting Returns With Text Data," NBER Working Papers 26186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Textual analysis; credit market sentiment; expectation error; constructed data.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates

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