Are Business Cycles Symmetric? / J. Bradford De Long, Lawrence H. Summers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Long, J. Bradford.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Summers, Lawrence H.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w1444.

NBER working paper series no. w1444

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1984.

Summary:

This note shows that contrary to widespread belief there is little evidence that the business cycle is asymmetric. Using American data for the pre- and post-war periods and data on five other major OECD nations for the post-war period, we are unable to support the hypothesis that contractions are shorter and sharper than expansions. We conclude that there is not much basis for preferring some version of traditional cyclical techniques to more modern statistical methods.

Notes:

Print version record

September 1984.