Seasonality in Revisions of Macroeconomic Data

We analyze the revision history of quarterly and monthly (seasonally unadjusted) macroeconomic variables for the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxemburg and the United States, where we focus on the degree of deterministic seasonality in these revisions. We document that the data show most deterministic seasonality in the final revision. The first-release data and the in-between revisions show a variety of seasonal patterns. The consequences of these findings for the interpretation and modeling of macroeconomic data are discussed.