Economic Activity Analysis based on Alternative Data

These days, in the field of economic analysis, various types of data are utilized in order to complement conventional economic statistics. These are called alternative data, and include high-frequency sales data, logistics data, mobile phone GPS data, credit card payment data and various kinds of unstructured data such as text data on the Internet, and images based on physical observations regarding economic activity. The advantage of using alternative data is the richness of the information and the rapidity of the data. This paper introduces our research using various alternative data especially for manufacturing production activities and consumption behavior of household sector in Japan.