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Article: Evaluating threshold effects in consumer sentiment.
- Article from:
- Southern Economic Journal
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Southern Economic Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1. Introduction
The Consumer Sentiment Index published by the University of Michigan (hereafter the UM index) is one of the two most commonly monitored measures of consumer sentiment in the United States (the other one being the Consumer Confidence Index issued by the Conference Board). Sentiment indexes, which are constructed from answers to survey questions, are popular with the media; newspaper articles and commentaries abound following their release. The analysis often confers a primary role to consumer sentiment in determining economic fluctuations. The view among economists, however, is more equivocal. As early as 1965, Adams and Green found that the ...