Surveying Business Uncertainty

105 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2019 Last revised: 29 Apr 2020

See all articles by David Altig

David Altig

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Jose Maria Barrero

ITAM - Business School

Nicholas Bloom

Stanford University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Steven J. Davis

University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Hoover Institution

Brent Meyer

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Nicholas Parker

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2019-06-01

Abstract

We develop a new monthly panel survey of business executives and a new question design that elicits subjective probability distributions over own-firm outcomes at a one-year lookahead horizon. Our Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU) began in 2014 and now covers 1,500 firms drawn from all 50 states, every major industry in the nonfarm private sector, and a full range of firm sizes. We use SBU data to measure expected future outcomes for the growth of sales, employment, and investment for each firm and the uncertainty surrounding those expectations. Mean expectations are highly predictive of realized growth rates in the firm-level data, and subjective uncertainty is highly predictive of absolute forecast errors. We also use the SBU data to produce a Business Expectations Index (first moment) and a Business Uncertainty Index (second moment) for the U.S. economy. In Granger causality tests, the Business Expectations Index has statistically significant predictive power for a range of prominent business cycle indicators. The SBU also includes special questions that elicit additional information, including the perceived effects of specific government policy developments on the firm's decisions and outcomes.

Keywords: business uncertainty, subjective forecast distributions, surveys

JEL Classification: L2, M2, O32, O33

Suggested Citation

Altig, David and Altig, David and Barrero, Jose Maria and Bloom, Nicholas and Davis, Steven J. and Meyer, Brent and Parker, Nicholas, Surveying Business Uncertainty (2019-06-01). FRB Atlanta Working Paper No. 2019-13, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3407687 or http://dx.doi.org/10.29338/wp2019-13a

David Altig (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland ( email )

East 6th & Superior
Cleveland, OH 44101-1387
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Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

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University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

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Jose Maria Barrero

ITAM - Business School ( email )

Rio Hondo No. 1
Col. Tizapan-San Angel Alc. Alvaro Obregon
Ciudad de Mexico, 01000
Mexico

Nicholas Bloom

Stanford University - Department of Economics ( email )

Landau Economics Building, Room 231
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6072
United States
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HOME PAGE: http://economics.stanford.edu/faculty/bloom

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Steven J. Davis

University of Chicago ( email )

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Chicago, IL 60637
United States
773-702-7312 (Phone)
773-702-0458 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
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Hoover Institution

434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
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773 251 1795 (Phone)

Brent Meyer

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ( email )

1000 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309-4470
United States

Nicholas Parker

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ( email )

1000 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309-4470
United States

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