COBE faculty member’s research selected for economics and finance peer-reviewed journal

Radford University Assistant Professor of Economics Can Dogan’s research paper “Google Trends and Structural Exchange Rate Models for Turkish Lira-U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate" has been accepted for publication in the Review of Middle East Economics and Finance Journal.

The paper, co-authored with Valdosta State University economics faculty member Levent Bulut, will be featured in an upcoming edition of the peer-reviewed journal.

The Review of Middle East Economics and Finance Journal addresses applied original economics and finance research pertaining to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions, including Turkey and Iran.

In their research, Dogan and Bulut focus on Google search phrases and analyze if exchange rate forecasts using Google Trends outperform traditional exchange rate models.

“We aim to use internet search activity data via Google Trends to gauge individual macro fundamentals in a timely manner and use these ex-ante measures to make out-of-sample forecast for Turkish Lira- U.S. dollar monthly exchange rate return series,” Dogan said.

“Since we base our findings on ex-ante data,” he continued, “the results might be of interest of policy makers to consider using Google Trends data in combination with other market information.”

Dogan earned a Ph.D. and master’s degree in economics from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul. He joined the Radford University College of Business and Economics faculty in 2017.