Business cycles in international historical perspective

This paper examines business cycles theoretically and empirically, with a quantitative study based on data for a cross section of countries. Theoretical concerns indicate that the properties of business cycle models depend not only on important structural aspects of the model, such as money neutrality, labor market structure, and price adjustment, but also on the closure of the model in international markets. Econometric considerations suggest that panel data can provide more information about the country-specific versus universal features of cycles. The authors review business cycle properties in a sample of over a dozen counties in light of these issues.