Economic Policy Uncertainty Indices CSV FRED Python Global¶

The policyuncertainty.com website, maintained by Scott R. Baker, Nick Bloom, and Steven J. Davis, hosts a large collection of text-based uncertainty and risk indices. All indices are newspaper-based (or text-based) and freely downloadable. Many are also available via FRED. Data is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU)¶

The headline index quantifies economic policy uncertainty by counting newspaper articles that contain terms related to the economy, policy, and uncertainty.

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
US EPU	United States (10 newspapers)	Monthly, daily	1985–present
Country-level EPU	25+ countries	Monthly	varies by country
Global EPU (GEPU)	GDP-weighted average of 18 national indices	Monthly	1997–present
US Categorical EPU	Policy sub-categories (see below)	Monthly	1985–present

The US categorical EPU breaks down uncertainty by policy domain — for example, monetary policy, fiscal policy, healthcare, trade policy, national security, and more. Each sub-index adds category-specific search terms on top of the baseline economy-uncertainty-policy filter.

Use in finance

The EPU index is widely used as a control variable or main explanatory variable in studies on investment, asset pricing, corporate decisions, and macro-finance. It is available on FRED as USEPUINDXM (monthly) and USEPUINDXD (daily).

Key reference: Baker, S.R., Bloom, N. and Davis, S.J. (2016). Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1593–1636. doi:10.1093/qje/qjw024

Geopolitical Risk (GPR)¶

The Geopolitical Risk Index by Caldara and Iacoviello counts newspaper articles related to adverse geopolitical events across 10 international newspapers, organized into eight categories (war threats, military buildups, nuclear threats, terror threats, and actual geopolitical acts).

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
GPR Benchmark	10 newspapers	Monthly, daily	1985–present
GPR Historical (GPRH)	3 newspapers	Monthly	1900–present
Geopolitical Threats (GPRT)	Threat categories 1–5	Monthly	1985–present
Geopolitical Acts (GPRA)	Act categories 6–8	Monthly	1985–present
Country-specific GPR	44 countries	Monthly	varies

Use in finance

The GPR index is used in studies on risk premia, flight-to-safety, capital flows, and investment under uncertainty. Higher GPR foreshadows lower investment and employment and is associated with larger downside risks.

Key reference: Caldara, D. and Iacoviello, M. (2022). Measuring Geopolitical Risk. American Economic Review, 112(4), 1194–1225. doi:10.1257/aer.20191823

World Uncertainty Index (WUI)¶

The World Uncertainty Index by Ahir, Bloom, and Furceri counts the frequency of "uncertainty" in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) country reports for 143 countries (covering 99% of world GDP).

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
WUI	143 countries	Quarterly	1952–present
World Trade Uncertainty (WTU)	143 countries	Quarterly	1996–present

Use in finance

The WUI provides broad cross-country coverage and is well suited for panel studies on uncertainty and economic outcomes. Available on FRED as WUIGLOBALWEIGHTAVG.

Key reference: Ahir, H., Bloom, N. and Furceri, D. (2022). The World Uncertainty Index. NBER Working Paper 29763. nber.org/papers/w29763

Monetary Policy Uncertainty (MPU)¶

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
Baker-Bloom-Davis MPU	United States	Monthly	1985–present
Husted-Rogers-Sun MPU	United States	Monthly	1985–present
Arbatli et al. MPU	Japan	Monthly	1987–present

Trade Policy Uncertainty¶

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
BBD Trade Policy Uncertainty	United States	Daily	1985–present
Caldara et al. Trade Policy Uncertainty	United States	Monthly	1960–present

Equity Market Volatility (EMV) Trackers¶

Newspaper-based trackers of equity market volatility that move closely with the VIX.

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
Overall EMV	United States	Monthly, daily	1985–present
Infectious Disease EMV	United States	Daily	1985–present
40+ categorical EMV trackers	United States	Monthly	1985–present

Key reference: Baker, S.R., Bloom, N., Davis, S.J. and Kost, K. (2026). Policy News and Stock Market Volatility. Journal of Financial Economics, 175, 104187.

Climate & Sustainability¶

Variant	Coverage	Frequency	Period
Climate Policy Uncertainty (CPU)	United States	Monthly	1985–present
US Climate Uncertainty	United States	Monthly	varies
Sustainability Uncertainty	United States	Monthly	varies

Other Specialized Indices¶

The site also hosts indices on:

AI Economic Uncertainty — newspaper-based index tracking uncertainty related to artificial intelligence
US-China Tension Index — measures bilateral geopolitical and economic tensions
Inter-Korean Geopolitical Risk — Korea-specific GPR
Cable News-based EPU — EPU derived from cable news transcripts
Twitter-based Uncertainty — social-media-based uncertainty measures
Energy Uncertainty Indexes — energy-sector-specific uncertainty
Financial Stress Indicator — newspaper-based financial stress
Firm-Level Political Risk — firm-level measures from earnings calls (Hassan et al.)
Immigration-Related Indices — immigration policy uncertainty

Python Example¶

Many indices are available via FRED:

from fredapi import Fred
fred = Fred(api_key="your_key")

# US Economic Policy Uncertainty (monthly)
epu = fred.get_series("USEPUINDXM")

# Global EPU (GDP-weighted)
gepu = fred.get_series("GEPUCURRENT")

# World Uncertainty Index (GDP-weighted)
wui = fred.get_series("WUIGLOBALWEIGHTAVG")

Or download directly from the website:

import pandas as pd

# US monthly EPU
url = "https://www.policyuncertainty.com/media/US_Policy_Uncertainty_Data.xlsx"
epu = pd.read_excel(url)

See also: Sentiment & Culture for investor sentiment surveys, cultural dimensions, and values surveys.