Consumer sentiment is arguably the

Transcription

1 Does Consumer Senimen Predic Regional Consumpion? Thomas A. Garre, Rubén Hernández-Murillo, and Michael T. Owyang This paper ess he abiliy of consumer senimen o predic reail spending a he sae level. The resuls here sugges ha, alhough here is a significan relaionship beween consumer senimen measures and reail sales growh in several saes, consumer senimen exhibis only modes predicive power for fuure changes in reail spending. Measures of consumer senimen, however, conain addiional explanaory power beyond he informaion available in oher indicaors. By resricing aenion o flucuaions in reail sales ha occur a he business cycle frequency, he auhors uncover a significan relaionship beween consumer senimen and reail sales growh in many addiional saes. In ligh of hese resuls, he auhors conclude ha he pracical value of senimen indices o forecas consumer spending a he sae level is, a bes, limied. Federal Reserve Bank of S. Louis Review, March/April 2004, 87(2, Par 1), pp Consumer senimen is arguably he mos cied indicaor of curren economic condiions, as i appears o be correlaed wih he srengh of he economy. Following Sepember 11, 2001, he wo mos common consumer senimen indices he Universiy of Michigan s Index of Consumer Senimen (ICS) and he Conference Board s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) fell an average of 20.9 percen hrough March 2003, reaching heir lowes levels in nearly a decade. During he same period, real personal consumpion expendiures grew by only 4.9 percen, compared wih a 6.6 percen rae of growh over he wo previous years when consumer senimen was higher. In fac, here is lile argumen in he academic lieraure ha conemporaneous consumer senimen and naional consumpion expendiure growh are relaed, as illusraed in Figure 1. Quarerly daa since 1970 reveal an average correlaion of 0.43 beween real personal consumpion expendiures and boh senimen indices. Wha has been an imporan and conroversial issue in he lieraure is he abiliy of consumer senimen o forecas fuure consumpion expendiures. Given ha consumpion expendiures direcly correspond wih economic growh, he issue is, hen, wheher consumer senimen can predic economic growh. If consumer senimen does predic economic growh, a furher quesion is wheher consumer senimen capures he percepions of individuals direcly or wheher i encompasses he forecasing informaion conained in oher variables. The answer o his quesion is of ineres, given he imeliness wih which he senimen indices are released, ofen ahead of oher indicaors. 1 Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994) find ha lagged values of he ICS significanly explain nearly 14 percen of growh in real personal consumpion expendiures. However, afer including oher forecasing variables in heir models, he incremenal impac of lagged senimen falls o 3 percen. Bram and Ludvigson (1998) exend he 1 The senimen indices are some of he earlies economic indicaors available a he quarerly frequency. Rubén Hernández-Murillo is an economis and Thomas A. Garre and Michael T. Owyang are senior economiss a he Federal Reserve Bank of S. Louis. The auhors hank Marianne Baxer for he use of he Baxer-King bandpass filer sofware and Jeremy Piger for helpful discussions. Molly Jo Dunn-Caselazo, Krisie M. Engemann, and Deborah Roisman provided research assisance. 2005, The Federal Reserve Bank of S. Louis. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

2 Figure 1 Consumer Senimen and Personal Consumpion Expendiures ICS, CCI Log-Difference of PCE :Q1 1971:Q3 models of Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994) by considering addiional forecasing variables and he CCI in addiion o he ICS. They find ha he ICS is no longer a significan predicor of consumpion expendiures when ineres rae and equiy price changes are included in he models. The CCI, however, did significanly improve he explanaory power of heir forecasing models. This suggess ha he CCI and he ICS do no provide he same forecasing informaion. These mixed resuls are echoed in he abiliy of each senimen index o forecas producion and employmen. Bachelor and Dua (1998) show ha, in heir model, he CCI is useful in predicing he 1991 recession, bu heir resuls canno be generalized o oher years. Masusaka and Sbordone (1995) find ha he ICS significanly improves heir forecasing model for gross naional produc afer considering oher facors such as money growh, ineres raes, and governmen spending. Howrey (2001) obains a similar resul for forecass of gross domesic produc. Leeper 1973:Q1 1974:Q3 1976:Q1 1977:Q3 1979:Q1 1980:Q3 1982:Q1 1983:Q3 1985:Q1 1986:Q3 1988:Q1 1989:Q3 1991:Q1 CCI ICS Log-Difference of PCE 1992:Q3 1994:Q1 1995:Q3 1997:Q1 1998:Q3 2000:Q1 2001:Q (1992) finds ha, while he ICS alone is a significan predicor of indusrial producion, he inclusion of addiional variables eliminaes any predicive power of he ICS. In conras wih mos of he earlier sudies, which have explored wheher consumer senimen predics naional measures of consumpion expendiures, in his paper we examine (i) how well consumer senimen indices predic reail sales growh a he sae level and (ii) wheher consumer senimen measures conain any incremenal predicive power abou fuure changes in consumer spending relaive o oher indicaors of reail sales growh. 2 Bu why aemp o predic sae-level measures a all when suiable aggregae measures are readily available? A recen paper by Owyang, Piger, and Wall (2004) found ha sae-level business cycles are no necessarily synchronous wih naional cycles. 2 Allenby, Jen, and Leone (1996) find ha consumer senimen forecass reail fashion sales. The auhors used sales daa from five specialy divisions of a Forune 500 reailer. 124 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

3 Thus, i is of ineres o deermine wheher and o wha exen consumer senimen reflecs idiosyncraic regional aciviy versus aggregae condiions. Furher, uncovering a significan sae-level relaionship beween consumer senimen and reail spending may allow policymakers o exrac imely informaion abou regional economic condiions from consumer senimen measures. Therefore, we examine wheher his relaionship is refleced in he naional daa and wheher he saisical significance, if any, is driven by a few isolaed saes. METHODOLOGY AND DATA Model The regression model we use o judge he predicive abiliy of consumer senimen on sae reail sales growh is R = α + βs + γ Z + ε, K i = 1 i i 1 where R is he log-difference in seasonally adjused real sae reail sales in year ; α is a consan erm; S i for i = 1,2...K denoe lagged values of consumer senimen, wih corresponding coefficiens β i ; Z is a vecor of addiional explanaory variables used o conrol for oher facors affecing reail sales growh and o deermine wheher consumer senimen is capuring omied economic condiions; and γ is he corresponding vecor of coefficiens. This model is used in Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994) and Bram and Ludvigson (1998). We run his regression for (i) each of 43 saes, (ii) he Disric of Columbia, and (iii) he aggregae separaely. We firs judge he forecasing power of consumer senimen by esing he null hypohesis ha β i = 0, for all i = 1,2...K, in a specificaion ha does no include he vecor Z. If he null hypohesis is rejeced in his model, we analyze he incremenal improvemen in he forecasing power of consumer senimen relaive o using only he variables in Z as predicors. For his, we compue he increase in he model s adjused R 2 from including lagged consumer senimen in addiion o Z and we es again for he join significance of he consumer senimen lags. Daa We use quarerly daa over he period 1971:Q2 o 2002:Q1 for he analysis. The choice of sample lengh and frequency is based on daa availabiliy and was made o ensure adequae variaions in he business cycle. The analysis uses he wo mos common measures of consumer senimen he ICS and he CCI. Each index is calculaed using respondens answers o five quesions dealing wih curren economic condiions and fuure economic expecaions. The ICS began as an annual survey in he 1940s and was convered o a quarerly survey in 1952 and o a monhly survey in The CCI began in 1967 as a bimonhly survey and was convered o a monhly survey in While boh indices are highly correlaed, he series do differ in erms of he survey quesions asked, sample size, and consrucion. 3 The ICS repor also provides senimen indices by geographic regions. There are four regions: Norh Eas, Norh Cenral, Souh, and Wes. We chose reail sales as he measure of saelevel consumpion because quarerly personal consumpion expendiure daa are no available a he sae level. Alhough daa on naional reail sales are available from he U.S. Census, reail sales a he sae level are no direcly available. Thus, o compue acual reail sales, we obained quarerly sae reail sales ax collecions over he period 1973:Q2 o 2002:Q1 for each of he 43 saes wih sae sales ax records and he Disric of Columbia. 4 Reail sales were compued by dividing sae sales ax collecions by he sae sales ax 3 See Bram and Ludvigson (1998) and Piger (2003) for a discussion of he wo consumer senimen indices. Informaion on he calculaion of he CCI is found a consumer_confidence/mehodology.hm, and informaion on he consrucion of he ICS is found a While he ICS and CCI are each based on five quesions, boh also compue an index of curren condiions ha is based on wo of he five quesions and an index of expecaions based on he remaining hree quesions. Thus, he expecaions componen is 60 percen of he ICS and CCI and he curren condiions componen is 40 percen of each index. 4 Delaware, Monana, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Alaska do no have sae sales axes. Uah and Nevada were no included due o incomplee reporing of sales ax collecions. Quarerly sae sales ax collecions are from he U.S. Census Bureau s Sae Governmen Tax Collecions (various years). FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

4 rae in he corresponding quarer. 5 A naional series was compued by summing over he individual saes and he Disric of Columbia. The nominal series were deflaed by he naional CPI and seasonally adjused using he Census X-12 adjusmen mehod. The resuling measure of real naional reail sales has a correlaion of 97.5 percen wih a measure consruced wih U.S. Census survey daa on aggregae nominal reail sales. The correlaion beween he wo series expressed in log-differences is 18.6 percen. Reail sales are a subse of personal consumpion expendiures. Reail sales include only goods and services ha are subjec o sae sales ax. Personal consumpion expendiures include oher forms of consumpion of goods and services ha are no usually subjec o sae sales ax. On average, sae sales axes apply o roughly 60 percen of personal consumpion expendiures, wih cerain variaion across saes. The sales ax exempions on food, prescripion drugs, clohing, uiliies, and cerain services also creae differences across saes. 6 Following he specificaion of Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994) and Bram and Ludvigson (1998), we include as explanaory variables in he vecor Z lagged values of real sae-level personal income growh as well as lagged reail sales growh o accoun for any auocorrelaion. Quarerly dummy variables are also included o capure any remaining seasonal differences in reail sales growh. 7 ESTIMATION AND RESULTS Esimaion The model is esimaed by ordinary leas squares for each of he 43 saes and he Disric 5 Sae sales ax raes over he sample period were obained from he U.S. Census Bureau s Sae Governmen Tax Collecions (various years); he Advisory Commission on Inergovernmenal Relaions Significan Feaures of Fiscal Federalism: Budge Processes and Tax Sysems, Vol. 1, Sepember 1995; The Council of Sae Governmens The Book of he Saes, 1996; and The Tax Foundaion s Facs and Figures on Governmen Finances (various years). 6 A comparison of reail sales and personal consumpion expendiures is found in Rodgers and Temple (1996). The correlaion beween he growh raes of naional reail sales and personal consumpion is 0.35 over he sample period. of Columbia using he naional ICS and CCI, as well as he regional ICS, maching each sae o one of he four ICS regions. We do no conduc a panel esimaion, because we are ineresed in he predicive power of he consumer senimen measures for each individual sae. We esimae a naional reail sales growh model o compare wih he resuls of pas sudies ha used a naional measure of spending such as personal consumpion expendiures. Following Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994), all he models are esimaed wih four lags of he consumer senimen indices and four lags of he conrol variables. Addiionally, he ess for join saisical significance are based on he Newey-Wes heeroskedasiciy- and auocorrelaion-consisen esimae of he covariance marix of he regression parameers using a window of four lags. Lag selecion ess repored in previous sudies indicae ha four lags seem o be adequae for quarerly daa. Consumer Senimen and Reail Sales Growh The impac of consumer senimen on reail sales growh is shown in Table 1. This able presens he adjused R 2 from he regressions wih he naional and regional ICS, as well as he Wald saisic for he join significance es on he lags of he consumer senimen measure, which is disribued asympoically as a χ 2 disribuion funcion wih K degrees of freedom. K represens he number of lags of he senimen variable and, herefore, he number of linear resricions in he es; in our case K = 4. The able presens he significance ess, where columns 1, 2, 5, and 6 do no include he vecor of conrol variables Z. We also conduc he join significance ess, condiioning on he vecor Z. In his case, he incremenal adjused R 2 represens he difference in explained variaion in a specificaion ha includes lags of he senimen index and he conrol variables and a specificaion ha includes only he conrol variables. 7 Oher variables, such as employmen and wages, were also considered. The inclusion of hese variables made no difference in he explanaory power of he final models. 126 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

5 Table 1 The Impac of ICS on Reail Sales Growh Naional ICS Regional ICS Wihou Z Wih Z Wihou Z Wih Z Sae R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald Unied Saes *** ** Alabama *** *** *** *** Arkansas ** ** Arizona California Colorado *** *** *** ** Connecicu Disric of Columbia * *** ** Florida * Georgia *** *** *** *** Hawaii * Idaho ** * * Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kenucky ** *** *** Louisiana Maine ** ** ** Maryland Massachuses Michigan * Minnesoa Mississippi *** ** Missouri *** *** Nebraska *** *** New Jersey New Mexico * ** ** New York * ** ** *** Norh Carolina *** *** * * Norh Dakoa Ohio ** ** Oklahoma Pennsylvania *** *** *** *** Rhode Island * ** * Souh Carolina Souh Dakoa Tennessee *** *** *** *** Texas * ** Vermon *** ** Virginia Washingon Wes Virginia * *** ** Wisconsin ** ** * ** Wyoming * No. of significan saes Share of significan saes No. of observaions NOTE: The baseline regression equaion is R = α+ β S + γ Z + ε, where Z includes four lags of real reail sales and four lags K i = 1 i i 1 of real personal income growh. The Wald saisic is from he join significance es on he lags of he consumer senimen measure, which is disribued asympoically as a χ 2 wih K = 4 degrees of freedom. The incremenal R 2 is he difference in explained variaion in a specificaion ha includes lags of he senimen index and he conrol variables and a specificaion ha includes only he conrol variables. All regressions include quarerly dummy variables. */**/*** denoe significance a he 10/5/1 percen levels, respecively. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

6 Figure 2 Significance of he Senimen/Sales Relaionships Using he Naional ICS Region 4 Region 2 Region 1 Region 3 Significan No Significan No in he Sample NOTE: Alaska is no in he sample, and Hawaii s level was no significan. ICS regions are oulined. The resuls obained wih he naional and regional ICS are very similar, alhough he same saes do no presen significan relaionships in boh cases. The ICS predics reail sales growh in abou 39 percen of he saes in he sample when no addiional variables are included. The percenage of explained variaion in reail sales growh, measured by he adjused R 2, in he saes wih a significan relaionship varies from 0 o abou 17 percen, wih an average of 2.8 percen using he naional ICS and an average of 4.6 percen using he regional ICS. 8 The geographic paern of he significance resuls when using he naional ICS can be observed in Figure 2, where we have also oulined he ICS regions. When addiional conrol variables are included, he consumer senimen/reail sales growh relaionship is significan in 19 of he 44 sample saes when using he naional ICS; his is rue in 22 saes when using he regional ICS. 8 Negaive values of he adjused R 2 were se o 0 o compue he averages. The incremenal variaion explained by he lagged consumer senimen in he saes wih a significan relaionship varies from 0 o abou 12 percen when using he naional ICS, wih an average of 4.6 percen; he incremenal explained variaion varies from 0 o abou 10 percen when using he regional ICS, wih an average of 3.7 percen. The resuls wih he naional CCI are summarized in Table 2. Wih no addiional conrol variables, he consumer senimen/reail sales relaionship is significan in abou 27 percen of he sample saes, and he adjused R 2 varies from 0 o abou 15 percen, wih an average of 3.5 percen among he saes wih a significan relaionship. When addiional conrol variables are included, he relaionship is significan in abou 43 percen of he sample saes. The incremenal adjused R 2 varies from 0 o abou 12 percen, wih an average of 4.3 percen among he saes wih a significan relaionship. We learn from hese ables ha consumer senimen lags predic reail sales growh in as much as 39 percen of he saes analyzed, when 128 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

7 Table 2 The Impac of CCI on Reail Sales Growh Wihou Z Naional CCI Wih Z Sae R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald Unied Saes *** ** Alabama *** *** Arkansas *** Arizona ** * California Colorado *** *** Connecicu Disric of Columbia * Florida Georgia *** *** Hawaii * Idaho *** ** Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kenucky *** Louisiana Maine *** ** Maryland Massachuses *** Michigan ** Minnesoa Mississippi ** Missouri ** Nebraska New Jersey New Mexico New York Norh Carolina ** *** Norh Dakoa Ohio * Oklahoma Pennsylvania *** *** Rhode Island Souh Carolina Souh Dakoa Tennessee *** Texas ** Vermon * *** Virginia Washingon Wes Virginia *** * Wisconsin Wyoming No. of significan saes Share of significan saes No. of observaions NOTE: The baseline regression equaion is R = α+ β S + γ Z + ε, where Z includes four lags of real reail sales and four lags K i = 1 i i 1 of real personal income growh. The Wald saisic is from he join significance es on he lags of he consumer senimen measure, which is disribued asympoically as a χ 2 wih K = 4 degrees of freedom. The incremenal R 2 is he difference in explained variaion in a specificaion ha includes lags of he senimen index and he conrol variables and a specificaion ha includes only he conrol variables. All regressions include quarerly dummy variables. */**/*** denoe significance a he 10/5/1 percen levels, respecively. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

8 Table 3 Naional Model: Ieraive Subracion of Top Significan Saes Sae regression Subraced saes* Naional ICS 20 Naional ICS wih Z 6 Regional ICS 19 Regional ICS wih Z 6 Naional CCI 14 Naional CCI wih Z 43 NOTE: *Number of saes ha have o be removed from he calculaion of naional reail sales before lags of consumer senimen lose significance in he naional regression. used as he only regressors, and in as much as half of he sample saes when oher conrol variables are added. The percenage of explained reail sales growh variaion, however, rarely exceeds 5 percen among he sample saes. In conras, abou 14 percen of he variaion in consumer expendiure growh is explained by consumer senimen lags in he resuls repored by Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox (1994). Neverheless, he incremenal variaion, wih respec o including addiional conrols, ofen exceeds 2 percen, which is in line wih he 3 percen of incremenal variaion of consumer spending growh explained by consumer senimen as repored by Carroll, Fuhrer, and Wilcox. These resuls indicae ha, alhough he relaionship beween consumer senimen and sae reail sales growh appears o be significan in many saes, consumer senimen has limied predicive power for fuure changes in reail spending, as measured by he percenage of explained variaion in he regression. Measures of consumer senimen, however, conain addiional explanaory power beyond he informaion available from oher indicaors. Regarding he naional reail sales model, we find ha he consumer senimen/reail sales growh relaionship is significan in boh he naional ICS and he naional CCI. The CCI, when used wihou addiional conrol variables, explains abou 4 percen of he reail sales growh variaion, whereas he ICS explains only abou 2 percen. The predicive power of he CCI over he ICS is consisen wih Bram and Ludvigson (1998). The incremenal increase in adjused R 2, when including addiional conrol variables, is 1.9 percen wih he ICS and 4.7 percen wih he CCI. DISCUSSION The empirical resuls sugges ha consumer senimen measures are relaively poor predicors of sae-level reail sales growh. We find ha consumer senimen appears o perform a he naional level as well as i does in he average sae wih a significan relaionship beween consumer senimen and reail sales growh. This raises wo quesions: (i) Are he naional resuls driven by a few saes wih a highly significan relaionship beween senimen and reail sales growh, and (ii) Does he use of aggregaed daa miigae large variaions in sae-level reail sales growh? Are he Naional Resuls Driven by a Few Saes? To answer he firs quesion, we conduced he following exercise. We ranked he individual sae regressions in decreasing order of adjused R 2, hen ieraively subraced he level of ha sae s reail sales from he naional aggregae, re-compuing he growh rae of naional reail sales. A each sep, we ran he naional regression using he new dependen variable and esed again for he join significance of he consumer senimen measures. If he naional resuls are driven by he op significan saes, hen one would expec he significance of he senimen coefficiens in he naional regression o drop quickly once reail sales from he significan saes are subraced ou. Table 3 presens a summary of his exercise; i liss, for each case of he sae regressions, he number of saes ha have o be removed before he naional regression loses significance. Each row in he able indicaes a regression a he sae level from which we ordered he saes in erms of he adjused R 2 coefficien. Table 3 provides evidence ha he impac of senimen on naional reail sales does no appear 130 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

9 Figure 3 Comparison of B-K Filered and Unfilered Sales Daa for Texas Log-Difference of Reail Sales :Q2 1975:Q1 1975:Q4 1976:Q3 1977:Q2 1978:Q1 1978:Q4 1979:Q3 1980:Q2 1981:Q1 o be he resul of a srong relaionship beween senimen and reail sales growh in only a few saes. Using he naional and hen he regional ICS as he senimen measure in he sae regressions, we find ha we have o remove 20 and 19 saes, respecively, o render he naional regression insignifican (wih he ICS as he dependen variable and no addiional explanaory variables). However, when including addiional explanaory variables in he naional and sae regressions, we have o remove only 6 saes before he naional regression loses significance. This indicaes ha he predicive power of his senimen measure when addiional explanaory variables are included in he naional regression is somewha less robus. In conras, we find ha he predicive power of CCI is robus in he naional regression when addiional explanaory variables are also included. In he specificaion wih no addiional variables we have o remove 14 saes before he naional regression loses significance. The CCI measure in he specificaion wih addiional variables remains significan even when we ieraively subrac every sae in he sample. 1981:Q4 1982:Q3 1983:Q2 1984:Q1 1984:Q4 1985:Q3 1986:Q2 1987:Q1 1987:Q4 1988:Q3 1989:Q2 1990:Q1 1990:Q4 1991:Q3 1992:Q2 1993:Q1 1993:Q4 1994:Q3 1995:Q2 1996:Q1 Unfilered Filered 1996:Q4 1997:Q3 1998:Q2 1999:Q1 Does he Use of Naional-Level Daa Miigae Large Variaions in Sae-Level Daa? Wih regard o he second quesion, i is possible ha idiosyncraic sae-level variaion in reail sales is sufficienly large o confound predicion of disaggregaed reail sales bu i washes ou in aggregaion. The sum of squared residuals for he naional- and sae-level regressions can provide insigh ino his scenario. I urns ou ha for each of he sae-level specificaions, wih he excepion of Alabama, he sum of squared residuals for a sae-level regression is equal or larger han he sum of squared residuals for he corresponding naional regression. Large variaions in reail sales growh a he sae level appear o be miigaed by aggregaing saes o he naional level, hus providing a more predicable daa series. If hese idiosyncraic sae-level flucuaions in reail sales are indeed responsible for confounding he sae regressions, resricing our aenion o he variaions in reail sales ha occur a he business cycle frequency migh increase he indices explanaory power. We accomplish his FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

10 Table 4 The Impac of ICS on B-K Filered Reail Sales Growh Naional ICS Regional ICS Wihou Z Wih Z Wihou Z Wih Z Sae R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald Unied Saes *** ** Alabama *** *** *** *** Arkansas *** *** * Arizona California *** ** ** Colorado *** ** *** * Connecicu ** *** *** Disric of Columbia *** ** ** ** Florida *** ** Georgia *** * *** Hawaii * Idaho * * Illinois *** *** *** Indiana *** *** *** *** Iowa ** *** Kansas *** *** Kenucky ** *** Louisiana ** *** Maine *** *** *** *** Maryland Massachuses *** *** Michigan * ** Minnesoa ** Mississippi ** * *** ** Missouri ** *** Nebraska ** * ** New Jersey New Mexico ** * ** New York *** *** *** *** Norh Carolina *** *** ** *** Norh Dakoa Ohio *** *** Oklahoma ** * Pennsylvania *** *** *** *** Rhode Island ** ** ** ** Souh Carolina ** Souh Dakoa ** * * Tennessee *** ** *** *** Texas *** *** Vermon *** *** Virginia *** *** *** ** Washingon Wes Virginia *** *** Wisconsin * * ** * Wyoming ** ** No. of significan saes Share of significan saes No. of observaions NOTE: The baseline regression equaion is R = α + β S + γ Z + ε, where Z includes four lags of real reail sales and four lags K i = 1 i i 1 of real personal income growh. The Wald saisic is from he join significance es on he lags of he consumer senimen measure, which is disribued asympoically as a χ 2 wih K = 4 degrees of freedom. The incremenal R 2 is he difference in explained variaion in a specificaion ha includes lags of he senimen index and he conrol variables and a specificaion ha includes only he conrol variables. All regressions include quarerly dummy variables. */**/*** denoe significance a he 10/5/1 percen levels, respecively. 132 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

11 Table 5 The Impac of CCI on B-K Filered Reail Sales Growh Wihou Z Naional CCI Wih Z Sae R 2 Wald Incremenal R 2 Wald Unied Saes *** *** Alabama *** *** Arkansas *** *** Arizona * California Colorado *** * Connecicu ** Disric of Columbia ** *** Florida Georgia *** Hawaii ** Idaho * Illinois *** *** Indiana *** *** Iowa *** Kansas ** ** Kenucky *** *** Louisiana *** * Maine *** *** Maryland *** Massachuses ** Michigan *** * Minnesoa * *** Mississippi ** ** Missouri *** ** Nebraska *** New Jersey New Mexico New York ** Norh Carolina *** *** Norh Dakoa * Ohio ** Oklahoma Pennsylvania *** *** Rhode Island *** ** Souh Carolina Souh Dakoa ** *** Tennessee *** ** Texas *** Vermon ** Virginia *** ** Washingon ** Wes Virginia * Wisconsin Wyoming *** No. of significan saes Share of significan saes No. of observaions NOTE: The baseline regression equaion is R = α+ β S + γ Z + ε, where Z includes four lags of real reail sales and four lags K i = 1 i i 1 of real personal income growh. The Wald saisic is from he join significance es on he lags of he consumer senimen measure, which is disribued asympoically as a χ 2 wih K = 4 degrees of freedom. The incremenal R 2 is he difference in explained variaion in a specificaion ha includes lags of he senimen index and he conrol variables and a specificaion ha includes only he conrol variables. All regressions include quarerly dummy variables. */**/*** denoe significance a he 10/5/1 percen levels, respecively. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

12 9 See Baxer and King (1999) for deails abou his filer. by employing he Baxer-King bandpass filer (henceforh, BK filer) o he reail sales and consumer senimen daa. 9 The algorihm has he effec of filering ou flucuaions ha occur ouside a prespecified periodic band. Because we are ineresed in business cycle flucuaions, we parameerize he filer using Baxer and King s suggesion of filering ou flucuaions wih periodiciy lower han 18 monhs and greaer han 8 years. An example of he resuling bandpassed series and he original reail sales daa (for Texas) is ploed in Figure 3. Specifically, noe ha he BK filer eliminaes he high-frequency noise in he reail sales series. Using he BK-filered daa, we perform he same regressions from he Esimaion and Resuls secion. Resuls are illusraed in Tables 4 and 5. We find ha, wihou high-frequency noise, he explanaory power of consumer senimen increases considerably. In fac, he number of saes in which lags of naional ICS ener significanly in he join es, once he high-frequency flucuaions are filered ou, jumps from 17 o 30, and he average adjused R 2 equals 15.5 percen among hese saes. The number of saes in which lags of regional ICS ener significanly jumps from 13 o 30, wih an average adjused R 2 of 14.5 percen. The number of saes in which lagged CCI eners significanly increases from 12 o 30, wih an average adjused R 2 of 16.6 percen. The naional esimaes are significan in boh he ICS and CCI cases. The adjused R 2 equals 33.4 percen using he ICS and 44.9 percen using he CCI. The average incremen in explained variaion when using addiional conrol variables, however, does no exceed 0.1 percen in any of he specificaions, suggesing ha no addiional informaion is provided by he consumer senimen indices ha is no conained in he conrol variables. This increase in explanaory power across saes suggess ha high-frequency flucuaions do confound he assessmen of consumer senimen s meri in evaluaing regional economic condiions. Alhough hese resuls validae, in par, he heory of employing consumer senimen indices o predic economic condiions, he pracical value of he indices as forecasing insrumens is limied. The resuls imply ha he business cycle componen of he indices (ha is, flucuaions ha occur wih business cycle periodiciy) are useful in forecasing he business cycle componen of reail sales; forecasing acual reail sales from acual consumer senimen, however, is problemaic because filering he daa requires dropping observaions a he end of he sample as well, no jus a he beginning. Thus, he indices may provide some indicaion abou he overall sae of he regional economy bu lile informaion abou nex monh s daa releases. SUMMARY In his paper we examine how well consumer senimen predics sae-level reail sales growh. The empirical resuls sugges ha consumer senimen measures are relaively weak predicors of sae-level reail sales growh. We find ha, on average, consumer senimen forecass reail sales growh for a leas 27 percen of he 44 saes we analyzed. In hose saes having a significan senimen/spending relaionship, he incremenal explanaory power of including lagged senimen in he forecasing models averages abou 4 percen. We find ha consumer senimen predics naional-level reail sales growh. This, however, raises he quesion of why he resuls beween sae and naional forecasing models are differen. This sudy shows ha aggregaion a he naional level miigaes random sae-level variaions in reail sales growh. However, while daa aggregaion reduces sae-level variaions in reail sales growh, our analysis also revealed ha he significan senimen and spending relaionship using naional reail sales is no driven by a srong senimen/spending relaionship in only a few saes. Focusing he invesigaion on flucuaions a he business cycle frequency reveals a significan senimen/spending relaionship in a greaer number of saes. The findings here reveal ha, while consumer senimen may help assess he general sae of he naional economy, i may no be an imporan facor in forecasing regional economic growh. 134 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW

13 REFERENCES Allenby, Greg M.; Jen, Lichung and Leone, Rober P. Economic Trends and Being Trendy: The Influence of Consumer Confidence on Reail Fashion Sales. Journal of Business and Economic Saisics, January 1996, 14(1), pp Bachelor, Roy and Dua, Pami. Improving Macroeconomic Forecass: The Role of Consumer Confidence. Inernaional Journal of Forecasing, March 1998, 14(1), pp Baxer, Marianne and King, Rober G. Measuring Business Cycles: Approximae Band-Pass Filers for Economic Time Series. Review of Economics and Saisics, November 1999, 81(4), pp Bram, Jason and Ludvigson, Sydney. Does Consumer Confidence Forecas Household Expendiure? A Senimen Index Horse Race. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, June 1998, 4(2), pp Carroll, Chrisopher D.; Fuhrer, Jeffrey C. and Wilcox, David W. Does Consumer Senimen Forecas Household Spending? If So, Why? American Economic Review, December 1994, 84(5), pp Leeper, Eric M. Consumer Aiudes: King for a Day. Federal Reserve Bank of Alana Economic Review, July-Augus 1992, 77(4), pp Masusaka, John G. and Sbordone, Argia M. Consumer Confidence and Economic Flucuaions. Economic Inquiry, April 1995, 33(2), pp Owyang, Michael T.; Piger, Jeremy M. and Wall, Howard J. Business Cycle Phases in U.S. Saes. Working Paper No E, Federal Reserve Bank of S. Louis, Piger, Jeremy M. Consumer Confidence Surveys: Do They Boos Forecasers Confidence? Federal Reserve Bank of S. Louis Regional Economis, April 2003, pp Rodgers, James D. and Temple, Judy A. Sales Taxes, Income Taxes, and Oher Non-Propery Tax Revenues, in J.R. Aronson and Eli Schwarz, eds., Managemen Policies in Local Governmen Finance, Municipal Managemen Series, Fourh Ediion. Washingon, DC: Inernaional Ciy/Couny Managemen Associaion for he ICMA Universiy, 1996, pp Howrey, E. Philip. The Predicive Power of he Index of Consumer Senimen. Brookings Papers on Economic Aciviy, 2001, (1), pp FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW MARCH/APRIL, PART

14 136 MARCH/APRIL, PART FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW