Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51943 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5522
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Nowcasting has been a challenge in the recent economic crisis. We introduce the Toll Index, a new monthly indicator for business cycle forecasting and demonstrate its relevance using German data. The index measures the monthly transportation activity performed by heavy transport vehicles across the country and has highly desirable availability properties (insignificant revisions, short publication lags) as a result of the innovative technology underlying its data collection. It is coincident with production activity due to the prevalence of just-in-time delivery. The Toll Index is a good early indicator of production as measured for instance by the German Production Index, provided by the German Statistical Office, which is a well-known leading indicator of the Gross National Product. The proposed new index is an excellent example of technological, innovation-driven economic telemetry, which we suggest should be established more around the world.
Subjects: 
business cycles
data mining
evaluating forecasts
macroeconomic forecasting
new products
transportation
production forecasting
nowcasting
telemetry
JEL: 
C82
E01
E32
E37
L92
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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