Unité et pluralité du cycle européen

This article estimates inobservable components models for studying the division of the zone euro GDP between trends and cycles, using quarterly data covering all the decades 1960 to 1990. Three approaches are confronted: they respectively identify the European cycles starting from the aggregate GDP of the zone euro; from the aggregation of the national cycles; finally, from multivariate model, which gathers the whole of the zone euro countries. Convergence between the results of these approaches is satisfactory. But the national cycles are not yet reducible to the common component which shows through in the aggregate cycle of the European GDP. This common and symmetrical component contributes only for one third approximately to the whole of national cycles. The definition of a balanced policy mix should take into account the persistent plurality of the European cycles.