Source: Ahir, Hites

Source: Bloom, Nick

Source: Furceri, Davide

Release: World Uncertainty Index  

Units:  Index, Not Seasonally Adjusted

Frequency:  Quarterly

The World Uncertainty Index determines uncertainty using the frequency of the selfsame word in the quarterly Economist Intelligence Unit country reports. This smoothed version of the index is preferred over the index for country-level data. The 3-quarter weighted moving average is computed as follows: 1996Q4 = (1996Q4*0.6) + (1996Q3*0.3) + (1996Q2*0.1)/3.

Please see Hites Ahir, Nicholas Bloom and Davide Furceri (2018), 'The World Uncertainty Index' for additional explanation.