R. Andrew Butters

Assistant Professor, Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

About Bank Publications Working Papers Selected External Publications

About

R. Andrew Butters is a consultant in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is an assistant professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Bank Publications

Chicago Fed Insights

Initial UI Claims and Google Trends in the Post-Pandemic Era

Scott A. Brave, Levi Bognar, R. Andrew Butters | 2023 | June

Another Look at the Correlation Between Google Trends and Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty | 2020 | July

A Closer Look at the Correlation Between Google Trends and Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty | 2020 | June

Chicago Fed Letter

Looking Down the Road with ALEX: Forecasting U.S. GDP

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty | 2020 | No. 447 | October Download

The Stay-at-Home Labor Market: Google Searches, Unemployment Insurance, and Public Health Orders

Daniel Aaronson, Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty | 2020 | No. 436 | May Download

Estimating the Trend Rate of Economic Growth Using the CFNAI

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2013 | No. 311 | June Download

Detecting Early Signs of Financial Instability

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2012 | No. 305 | December Download

Chicago Fed National Activity Index Turns Ten—Analyzing Its First Decade of Performance

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2010 | No. 273 | April Download

Economic Perspectives

A New “Big Data” Index of U.S. Economic Activity

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, David Kelley | 2019 | Vol. 43 | No. 1 | February Download

Nowcasting Using the Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2014 | Vol. 38 Download

Monitoring Financial Stability: A Financial Conditions Index Approach

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2011 | Vol. 35 | No. 1 Download

What Is the Relationship between Large Deficits and Inflation in Industrialized Countries?

Marco Bassetto, R. Andrew Butters | 2010 | Vol. 34 | No. 3 | 3rd Quarter Download

Preannounced Tax Cuts and Their Potential Influence on the 2001 Recession

R. Andrew Butters, Marcelo Veracierto | 2009 | Vol. 33 | No. 3 | 3rd Quarter Download

Working papers

Working Papers

The perils of working with Big Data and a SMALL framework you can use to avoid them (REVISED March 2, 2021)

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty | 2020 | No. 2020-35 | December Download

Using the Eye of the Storm to Predict the Wave of Covid-19 UI Claims (REVISED April 2020)

Daniel Aaronson, Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Daniel Sacks, Boyoung Seo | 2020 | No. 2020-10 | April Download

Forecasting Economic Activity with Mixed Frequency Bayesian VARs (Revised July 2018)

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Alejandro Justiniano | 2016 | No. 2016-05 Download

Gathering Insights on the Forest from the Trees: A New Metric for Financial Conditions

Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters | 2010 | No. 2010-07 | January Download

Selected External Publications

Acceptances in Academic Journals and Books

Bognar, Levi, Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, and Kevin A. Roberts, 2024, “Competitive balance in professional sports: A multi-dimensional perspective,” Sports Economics Review, Vol. 6, 100034, June. 20240601050000

Aaronson, Daniel, Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, Michael Fogarty, Daniel Sacks, and Boyoung Seo, 2022, “Forecasting unemployment insurance claims in real time with Google Trends,” International Journal of Forecasting, Vol. 38, No. 2, April–June, pp. 567–581. 20220401050000

Brave, Scott A., R. Andrew Butters, and David Kelley, 2022, “A practitioner’s guide and MATLAB toolbox for mixed frequency state space models,” Journal of Statistical Software, Vol. 104, No. 10, October, pp. 1–40, (accepted June 13, 2020). 20221001050000

Brave, Scott A., R. Andrew Butters, and Michael Fogarty, 2022, “The perils of working with big data and a SMALL checklist you can use to recognize them,” Business Horizons, Vol. 65, No. 4, July–August, pp. 481–492. 20220701050000

Aaronson, Daniel, Scott A. Brave, R. Andrew Butters, and Daniel Sacks, 2020, “Using the eye of the storm to predict the wave of Covid-19 UI claims,” Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers, Vol. 1, No. 9, April, pp. 59–76, (accepted April 18, 2020). 20200401050000

Brave, Scott A., R. Andrew Butters, and Kevin A. Roberts, 2019, “Uncovering the sources of team synergy: Player complementarities in the production of wins,” Journal of Sports Analytics, Vol. 5, No. 4, December, pp. 247–279. 20191201060000

Brave, Scott A., R. Andrew Butters, and Alejandro Justiniano, 2019, “Forecasting economic activity with mixed frequency BVARs,” International Journal of Forecasting, Vol. 35, No. 4, October–December, pp. 1692–1707. 20191001050000