st: Re: low freq -> high freq

[Kit Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

Indeed, the Denton procedure is pattern-preserving in the indicator 
series subject to  the accounting constraint that the high freq values 
add up to the original low freq value. So e.g. industrial production 
(which is available monthly) may be used as an indicator for GDP (which 
is only available quarterly). One must choose the indicator series with 
some understanding of the underlying economic relationships, since you 
are imposing the pattern of the indicator on the intermediate values of 
the constructed series. It beats dot-to-dot interpolation hands down.

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html

On Mar 15, 2005, at 2:33 AM, Nick wrote:


> Perhaps I should have underlined that
> economists do this ... with the aid
> of a so-called indicator series
> at the higher frequency. Thus any
> inferences, or implications, that this is "making it up"
> are going too far. Like many statistical
> procedures, it is a matter of doing the
> best you can with the data you have. 
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