This "Festschrift" honours Geoffrey H. Moore's life-long contribution to the study of business cycles. After some analysts had concluded that business cycles were dead, renewed economic turbulence in the 1970s and 1980s brought new life to the subject. The study of business cycles now encompasses the global economic system, and this work aims to push back the frontiers of knowledge.

This title was first published in 1990.

This up-to-date book on modern theories of the business cycle fills a gap in the literature by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the major theoretical work before and after 1970. The author focuses on the Political and Equilibrium theories of the cycle with special attention to the role of government in each of these theories, considers evidence supporting these modern theories and their underlying hypotheses, and analyzes business cycle modeling and the role of government in the cycle.

This is a realistic account of what goes on within a business cycle. The recurrent phases of economic activity - prosperity, crisis, depression, and revival - grow into and out of each other. They are here examined in terms of the characteristics and observed behavior of the economic system. Originally published in 1913, Mitchell's germinal and familiar work marked the beginning of a distinctly new approach to the analysis of business cycles. The present volume, which is Part III of the larger work, has since become the classic statement of a theory of their causes. One of the reasons for its durability is not far to seek: it was woven out of observed phenomena of the money economy, not spun out of airy postulates. Original contributions to economic theory outlast the individual and temporal variations which the annals of business and the tables of statistics show. This is such a contribution.

The ups and downs of booms and slumps, often referred to as business cycles, are features of all modern economies. This book considers business cycles over three epochs 1870-1913, 1919-1938 and the post-World War II period. It provides an analysis of the key macroeconomic questions relating to economic fluctuations. Why are the ups and down more volatile in some epochs than others? Why are some business cycle shocks more persistent in their effects? Is there an international business cycle? Can present business cycle features predict future patterns? What impact will institutional changes, such as EMU have on future fluctuations?

Victor Zarnowitz has long been a leader in the study of business cycles, growth, inflation, and forecasting. These papers represent a carefully integrated and up-to-date study of business cycles, reexamining some of his earlier research as well as addressing recent developments in the literature and in history. In part one, Zarnowitz reviews with characteristic insight various theories of the business cycle, including Keynesian and monetary theories as well as more recent rational expectations and real business cycle theories. In doing so, he examines how the business cycle may have changed as the size of government, the exercise of fiscal and monetary policies, the openness of the economy to international forces, and the industrial structure have evolved over time. Emphasizing important research from the 1980s, Zarnowitz discusses in part two various measures of the trends and cycles in economic activity, including output, prices, inventories, investment in residential and nonresidential structures, equipment, and other economic variables. Here the author explores the duration and severity of U.S. business cycles over more than 150 years, and evaluates the ability of macro models to simulate past behavior of the economy. In part three the performance of leading, coincident, and lagging indicators is described and assessed and evidence is presented on the value of their composite measures. Finally, part four offers an analysis of the degree of success of large commercial forecasting firms and of many individual economists in predicting the course of inflation, real growth, unemployment, interest rates, and other key economic variables. Business Cycles is a timely study, certain tobecome a basic reference for professional forecasters and economists in government, academia, and the business community.

This title provides an overview of the modern theory and empirics of business cycles. The book examines the notion of a business cycle and discusses alternative approaches to modelling. It also discusses what lies ahead for modern business cycle theory.