Sudden and unforeseen shocks can cause incalculable and fast-changing economic dynamics to which policy makers need to respond quickly – as we have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, data from traditional statistics that usually guide policy decisions are only available with non-negligible time delays. This leaves policy makers uncertain about how to most effectively manage their economic countermeasures to support businesses.
Given this information deficit, our colleagues from ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research propose a framework that guides policy makers throughout all stages of an unforeseen economic shock by providing timely and reliable data as a basis to make informed decisions. They do so by combining early stage ‘ad hoc’ web analyses, ‘follow-up’ business surveys, and ‘retrospective’ analyses of firm outcomes.
Learn more about the proposed integrated data framework in the recently published discussion paper.