Automation in Regional Economic Synthetic Index Construction with Uncertainty Measurement

Abstract

Subnational jurisdictions, compared to the apparatuses of countries and large institutions, have less resources and human capital available to carry out an updated conjunctural follow-up of the economy (nowcasting) and for generating economic predictions (forecasting). This paper presents the results of our research aimed at facilitating the economic decision making of regional public agents. On the one hand, we present an interactive app that, based on dynamic factor analysis, simplifies and automates the construction of economic synthetic indicators and, on the other hand, we evaluate how to measure the uncertainty associated with the synthetic indicator. Theoretical and empirical developments show the suitability of the methodology and the approach for measuring and predicting the underlying aggregate evolution of the economy and, given the complexity associated with the dynamic factor analysis methodology, for using bootstrap techniques to measure the error. We also show that, when we combine different economic series by dynamic factor analysis, approximately 1000 resamples is sufficient to properly calculate the confidence intervals of the synthetic index in the different time instants.