INTEGRATED ECONOMIC INDICATORS PROJECT

INTEGRATED ECONOMIC INDICATORS PROJECT

Integrated Economic Indicators Project explores the application of macroeconomic principles and techniques to demystify business cycles. The emphasize in this integrated project is on systematic analysis of key economic indicators: Leading, Co-incidental and Lag to predict, understand and explain business cycles and the attendant fluctuations in planned business investments and level of economic activities or real Gross Domestic Product.

INTEGRATED ECONOMIC INDICATORS PROJECT

To illustrate the steps in Economic Indicators Analysis, students will demonstrate how key economic indicators are used to predict, understand and explain business cycles to guide macroeconomic policies. Please limit your narrative and analysis to 10 pages using current APA citation guidelines and the following outline:

Preparing Economic Indicator Analysis-Suggested Outline:

· Step 1: Choose economic indicators

· Step 2: Track weekly reports

· Step 3: Analyze the combined indicators

· Step 4: Interpret the data

· Step 5: Predict the phase of business cycle

· Step 6: Macroeconomic policy implications

Business cycles involve periodic fluctuations of economicactivity, such as production and employment.  Leading indicators measure economic activity in which shifts may predict the onset of a business cycle. Examples of leading indicators include average weekly work hours in manufacturing, factory orders for goods, housing permits and stock prices. Changes in these metrics could signal a shift in business cycle.  

Use the following resources:

1.  https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/leading-economic-indicators.asp

2.  https://www.conference-board.org/data/bci.cfm

3.  https://www.conference-board.org/data/bci/index.cfm?id=2160

BUSINESS CYCLE FORECASTING SAMPLE:

http://people.stern.nyu.edu/nroubini/bci/bciintroduction.htm