A new look at economic indexes for the states in the Third District

Abstract

If we want to know how things are going in the economy, which measures should we look at? Unemployment? GDP? Or something else? One solution is to combine several measures into a composite index of current or future economic activity. Several years ago, the Philadelphia Fed did just that for the states in the Third District. Now, a number of factors suggest that revisions of those indexes are in order. This article explains what those revisions entail and why the new indexes are better than the old ones.Federal Reserve District, 3rd