Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 1998

Abstract

Appearing in this issue of Benchmarks is a new current index and a new leading index for the state of Massachusetts. The current index is composed of four state-level economic indicators that move concurrently with the commonwealth's economy: establishment employment, the unemployment rate, withholding taxes, and sales taxes. The index is normalized at 100 in July 1987. Its average trend growth over 1978–96 is set to equal the trend growth of real gross state product. The current index indicates whether the economy is expanding or contracting and at what rate it is doing so. It provides a more comprehensive and reliable indication than does any single component, and a more frequent and timely measure than does gross state product or personal income.

Comments

Published in MassBenchmarks, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 24: http://www.massbenchmarks.org/publications/issues/vol1i4/98fall_v1i4.pdf.

Publisher

University of Massachusetts

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.