The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 106 No. 2 2024

Tracking Weekly State-Level Economic Conditions

Christiane Baumeister¹; Danilo Leiva-León²; Eric Sims³

¹ University of Notre Dame, University of Pretoria, NBER, and CEPR · ² European Central Bank · ³ University of Notre Dame and NBER

Abstract

This paper develops a novel dataset of weekly economic conditions indices for the 50 U.S. states going back to 1987 based on mixed-frequency dynamic factor models with weekly, monthly, and quarterly variables that cover multiple dimensions of state economies. We find considerable cross-state heterogeneity in the length, depth, and timing of business cycles. We illustrate the usefulness of these state-level indices for quantifying the main contributors to the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and for evaluating the effectiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program. We also propose an aggregate indicator that gauges the overall weakness of the U.S. economy.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01171

Volume

106

Issue

2

Pages

483-504

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓