Michael Lamla

Media Reporting and Business Cycles

In a recent study, Michael Lamla, together with S. Lein and J. E. Sturm, have examined whether news shocks are possibly an important driver of economic cycles. Using a direct measure of news sentiment derived from media reports, they examined whether innovations in the reporting tone correlate with changes in the assessment and expectations of the business situation as reported by firms in the German manufacturing sector. They determined that innovations in news reporting affect business expectations, even when conditioning on the current business situation and industrial production.

Mr. Lamla’s research centers on topics in monetary macroeconomics. One re-occurring theme is central bank communication with financial markets and non-experts. To analyze this, he makes use of survey data to explore, for instance, the effects of announcements on perceptions and expectations of consumers, allowing light to be shed on how effective central banks are in guiding expectations of the general public.

During his research stay at the ifo Institute Mr. Lamla will work on analyzing the response of economic experts to central bank announcements.

Michael Lamla is a full Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Prior to this he was a full Professor at the University of Essex and the University of Lüneburg. After graduating from the University of Bonn he was awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Zurich. He is Research Professor at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zürich, and member of the CEPR research network on central bank communication as well as co-editor of the Review of International Economics.