Konferenzbeitrag

Uncertainty is Change

This paper provides survey evidence on firms’ subjective uncertainty about future sales growth from a new representative panel data set of the German manufacturing sector. The main finding is that uncertainty reflects change: firms report more subjective uncertainty after either high or low growth realizations. In the cross section of firms, subjective uncertainty differs from statistical measures of uncertainty such as volatility: fast-growing and large firms report lower subjective uncertainty than fast-shrinking and small firms, respectively, even if they face shocks of similar size. In contrast, the substantial time variation in firm-specific subjective uncertainty resembles that in conditional volatility: both measures of uncertainty are mildly persistent and rise more when growth is temporarily low.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2018: Digitale Wirtschaft - Session: Business Cycles I ; No. A06-V2

Classification
Wirtschaft
Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
Macroeconomics: Production
Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
Macroeconomics: Production
Subject
expectation formation
firms
measurement
subjective uncertainty
survey data

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Carstensen, Kai
Bachmann, Rüdiger
Schneider, Martin
Lautenbacher, Stefan
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
(where)
Kiel, Hamburg
(when)
2018

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Konferenzbeitrag

Associated

  • Carstensen, Kai
  • Bachmann, Rüdiger
  • Schneider, Martin
  • Lautenbacher, Stefan
  • ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft

Time of origin

  • 2018

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