The GPR index is constructed as share of newspapers articles mentioning geopolitical tensions, by searching for specific words in newspaper articles containing words related to geopolitical risks. Compared to the 2019 version, the revised index slightly changes the words.
Another difference is that the new recent index is rebased to be equal to 100 on average for the period 1985-2019. The new historical index is rebased to be equal to 100 for the period 1900-2019.
The new index, in particular, adds word combinations that were not included in the previous version, such as “foe” or “enemy” in proximity of “attack” OR “offensive”, or “peace” in proximity of “threats”. These word combinations are often used in presence of increases in geopolitical risk. Events such as the Korean war or the Second World War stand out more in the revised version relative to the previous one, and the adverse geopolitical events of the 2000-2020 period look ``less risky'' than their 20th century counterparts.
The revised index is very highly correlated with the old one, but
has less of an upward trend than the previous.
