  Octupole deformation and collective excitations are studied within the
interacting boson model. By using the results of the self-consistent mean-field
calculations with a universal energy density functional, the Hamiltonian of the
interacting $s$, $d$, and $f$ boson system is completely determined. A global
systematic study confirms that significant octupole effects are present in
actinide, lanthanide, and rare-earth nuclei corresponding to particular nucleon
numbers for which octupole correlations are empirically suggested to be
enhanced.
