Economic Policy Uncertainty in Ireland

摘要

I constructed a new measure of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) for Ireland based on newspaper coverage frequency. The EPU index is derived from thousands of articles published from 1985 to 2016, each containing at least one key term indicative of change in the economy, uncertainty, and government policy. The EPU index captures major events from the past including the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Belfast Agreement, and the Gulf Wars. It also records recent events such as Occupy Dame Street, the Great Recession, and the Irish Bailout, as well as presidential elections, emigration periods, and attacks by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).