I'm looking at several processes that may have a cause/effect relationship that involves a lag between the causal and the resultant event. I'm trying to quantify that lag. I wondered if there's a method that would involve a simple linear correlation analysis (getting the r-squared value, the correlation coefficient) followed by a shift in data by a time unit and re-evaluating the correlation until the r-squared value becomes maximum.

Is there such a method? If so, is there a piece of software or scrip that would do that?

Thank you!