UNLABELLED: Data on the number of people who have committed suicide tends to be reported with a substantial time lag of around two years. We examine whether online activity measured by Google searches can help us improve estimates of the number of suicide occurrences in England before official figures are released. Specifically, we analyse how data on the number of Google searches for the terms 'depression' and 'suicide' relate to the number of suicides between 2004 and 2013. We find that estimates drawing on Google data are significantly better than estimates using previous suicide data alone. We show that a greater number of searches for the term 'depression' is related to fewer suicides, whereas a greater number of searches for the term 'suicide' is related to more suicides. Data on suicide related search behaviour can be used to improve current estimates of the number of suicide occurrences. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0094-0) contains supplementary material.

• Keywords
• Google Trends, nowcasting, official statistics, search data,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

The online activity of Internet users has repeatedly been shown to provide a rich information set for various research fields. We focus on job-related searches on Google and their possible usefulness in the region of the Visegrad Group--the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Even for rather small economies, the online searches of inhabitants can be successfully utilized for macroeconomic predictions. Specifically, we study unemployment rates and their interconnection with job-related searches. We show that Google searches enhance nowcasting models of unemployment rates for the Czech Republic and Hungary whereas for Poland and Slovakia, the results are mixed.

• MeSH
• Internet * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Unemployment statistics & numerical data   MeSH
• Models, Theoretical MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Hungary MeSH
• Poland MeSH
• Slovakia MeSH

Digital currencies have emerged as a new fascinating phenomenon in the financial markets. Recent events on the most popular of the digital currencies--BitCoin--have risen crucial questions about behavior of its exchange rates and they offer a field to study dynamics of the market which consists practically only of speculative traders with no fundamentalists as there is no fundamental value to the currency. In the paper, we connect two phenomena of the latest years--digital currencies, namely BitCoin, and search queries on Google Trends and Wikipedia--and study their relationship. We show that not only are the search queries and the prices connected but there also exists a pronounced asymmetry between the effect of an increased interest in the currency while being above or below its trend value.

• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH