This paper shows that the existing estimates of prewar gross national product exaggerate the size of cyclical fluctuations. The source of the exaggeration is that the original Kuznets estimates are based on the assumption that GNP moves one-for-one with commodity output valued at producer prices. New estimates of GNP for 1869-1918 are derived using the estimated aggregate relationship between GNP and commodity output for the interwar and postwar eras. The new estimates of GNP indicate that the business cycle is only slightly more severe in the pre-Worid War I era than in the post-World War II era.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
1969.
Length: Date of creation: Jul 1986 Date of revision: Publication status: published as Romer, C. "The Prewar Business Cycle Reconsidered: New Estimates of Gross National Product, 1869-1908," from Journal of Political Economy, February 1989, vol. 97, pp. 1-37. Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1969
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