Re: [Gretl-users] (NBER) recession shading in gretl/gnuplot

-----Original Message-----

> > So: I suggest that either the shading should start in the middle of > the period (middle of March in this example). But given that that may > not be feasible with gnuplot, I would suggest to adopt the FRED > convention and start the shading right after the peak dates. Right now the documentation for a "plotbars" file says: # Format: each non-comment line must contain two space- # separated dates in the format YYYY:MM. These represent # the start and end of "episodes" of some sort. I take your point, but if we're to abide by this description, maybe the appropriate fix would be to modify the example NBER file: make the "start" of each NBER recession the month after the peak rather than the peak itself. In this case no changes to the plotting code would be required. The alternative would be to leave the NBER file as it is and reword the description, replacing "start" (of an episode) with something like "period immediately preceding, as in NBER business cycle peaks". This would have to be accompanied by a change to the plotting code. Preferences/thoughts? Allin