Economic news makes for big headlines and affects how you spend your money, whether it’s stocks or bonds. It includes central bank interest rate decisions, unemployment numbers and GDP reports, as well as earnings data and consumer confidence reports.
When covering economic topics, it’s essential for journalists to understand how different parts of the economy work. For example, a report on the manufacturing sector may include insights into how higher tariffs are affecting companies’ ability to sell to export markets or how changing demand for goods might impact future investment. Incorporating quotes from business executives and public officials can add depth and human interest to a story driven by economic data.
It’s also important to be aware of the potential for errors in data sets. For instance, surveys of market expectations are often conducted in advance of actual data releases, with leads ranging from a few days to a week or more. This lag in the collection of information can lead to a distortion in estimated asset price responses, known as survey-based measurement error. Rigobon and Sack devised a method for correcting for this bias, which they call the “true news” estimator. This approach corrects for the effects of accumulated information in addition to those from the survey itself, resulting in estimates that are less biased and more accurate than those based on traditional methods of measuring news impact.