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Reconciled Estimates of Monthly GDP in the US

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  • James Mitchell
  • Gary Koop
  • Stuart McIntyre
  • Aubrey Poon

Abstract

In the US, income and expenditure side estimates of GDP (GDPI and GDPE) measure "true" GDP with error and are available at the quarterly frequency. Methods exist for producing reconciled quarterly estimates of GDP based on GDPI and GDPE. In this paper, we extend these methods to provide reconciled historical GDP estimates at the monthly frequency from 1960. We do this using a Bayesian Mixed Frequency Vector Autoregression involving GDPE, GDPI, unobserved true GDP and monthly indicators of short-term economic activity. We illustrate how the new monthly data contribute to our historical understanding of business cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • James Mitchell & Gary Koop & Stuart McIntyre & Aubrey Poon, 2020. "Reconciled Estimates of Monthly GDP in the US," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2020-16, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    • Handle: RePEc:nsr:escoed:escoe-dp-2020-16
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    2. Ana Beatriz Galvão & James Mitchell, 2023. "Real‐Time Perceptions of Historical GDP Data Uncertainty," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(3), pages 457-481, June.
    3. Bing Han & Muhammad Rizwanullah & Yane Luo & Rahim Atif, 2024. "The role of cross-border E-commerce on the export of goods and services," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1367-1384, June.
    4. Chan, Joshua C.C. & Poon, Aubrey & Zhu, Dan, 2023. "High-dimensional conditionally Gaussian state space models with missing data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(1).
    5. Blagov, Boris & Krause, Clara & Schmidt, Torsten & Exß, Franziska & Heinisch, Katja & Holtemöller, Oliver, 2024. "Frühzeitige Ermittlung stabiler Ergebnisse zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt bzw. realen Wirtschaftswachstum und der Bruttowertschöpfung auf Länderebene. Endbericht," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 296879.
    6. Wu, Ping, 2024. "Should I open to forecast? Implications from a multi-country unobserved components model with sparse factor stochastic volatility," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 903-917.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income; Output; Expenditure; Monthly; Business cycle; Expansion; Contraction; Recession; Turning point; State-space model; Vector autoregressions; Bayesian methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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