Calculation of uncertainty index based on an Internet search: A case study of the foreign exchange market of Iran

After the financial crisis, studies of uncertainty have been of particular interest to researchers in the past decade. Given the negative impact of uncertainty on the economic growth and development of the country, policymakers seek to control and reduce the uncertainty to improve economic activities. For this purpose, the value of uncertainty must first be assessed. In this study, after the existing methods of calculating uncertainty are expressed, the index of uncertainty is introduced based on an Internet search and its advantages and disadvantages are examined. Given the foreign exchange turbulence in Iran's economy in recent years, the uncertainty indices in the foreign exchange market during the years 2003-2016 are extracted monthly through this procedure. Furthermore, in the next step, GARCH models are used to estimate uncertainty indices in the foreign exchange market for the same period. It has been found through comparison that the Internet search of indices provides a good image of the foreign exchange price variations in the market. In general, policymakers in various areas need to monitor their policy environment, which can be used to measure uncertainty in some of these areas.