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Business Cycles in History

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Author Info
Spree, Reinhard

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Abstract

This paper is a thoroughly revised and extended version of an article firstly published in the anthology "Moderne Wirtschaftsgeschichte" (München: Oldenbourg) in 1996. This book is an introduction to modern economic history for historians and economists. Accordingly this paper has to two objectives: Firstly, it presents economic theory explaining business cycles to historians. Secondly, for economists it illustrates both the possibilities and problems to detect and understand business cycles in the past. The paper is organised as follows: Section 1 sets the scene. It describes the approach of business cycles and provides a number of essential definitions. The next section shortly illustrates business cycles in the past 200 years in Germany (2). Section 3 deals with business cycle theory. To start with, it highlights the long tradition of theories that have sought to explain business cycles (3.1). Secondly it explains the "standard paradigm" (3.2). Thirdly it reviews the latest developments in business cycle theory (3.3). Section 4 discusses the application of business cycle theory in historical research. The last section deals with open questions and unsolved problems from a historian's point of view.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Munich, Department of Economics in its series Discussion Papers in Economics with number 6.

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Date of creation: Mar 2002
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Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:6

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative
N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. George W. Stadler, 1994. "Real Business Cycles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1750-1783, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Christina D. Romer, 1999. "Changes in Business Cycles: Evidence and Explanations," NBER Working Papers 6948, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Long, John B, Jr & Plosser, Charles I, 1983. "Real Business Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(1), pages 39-69, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Plosser, Charles I, 1989. "Understanding Real Business Cycles," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 51-77, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Susanto Basu & Alan M. Taylor, 1999. "Business Cycles in International Historical Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 45-68, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-70, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Gorton, Gary, 1988. "Banking Panics and Business Cycles," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 751-81, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Eichenbaum, Martin, 1991. "Real business-cycle theory : Wisdom or whimsy?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 607-626, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Lucas, Robert E., 1977. "Understanding business cycles," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 7-29, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Peter Brandner & Klaus Neusser, 1992. "Business cycles in open economies: Stylized facts for Austria and Germany," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 67-87, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. J. Bradford De Long, 1999. "Introduction to the Symposium on Business Cycles," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 19-22, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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