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Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why?

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  • James H. Stock
  • Mark W. Watson

Abstract

From 1960-1983, the standard deviation of annual growth rates in real GDP in the United States was 2.7%. From 1984-2001, the corresponding standard deviation was 1.6%. This paper investigates this large drop in the cyclical volatility OF real economic.activity. The paper has two objectives. The first is to provide a comprehensive characterization of the decline in volatility using a large number of U.S. economic time series and a variety of methods designed to describe time-varying time series processes. In so doing, the paper reviews the literature on the moderation and attempts to resolve some of its disagreements and discrepancies. The second objective is to provide new evidence on the quantitative importance of various explanations for this 'great moderation.' Taken together, we estimate that the moderation in volatility is attributable to a combination of improved policy (20-30%), identifiable good luck in the form of productivity and commodity price shocks (20-30%), and other unknown forms of good luck that manifest themselves as smaller reduced-form forecast errors (40-60%).

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9127.

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Date of creation: Aug 2002
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Publication status: published as Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why? , James H. Stock, Mark W. Watson. in NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17 , Gertler and Rogoff. 2003
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9127
Note: EFG ME
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  • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles

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  1. Et si la Grande Modération ne s’était jamais achevée ?
    by ? in D'un champ l'autre on 2014-04-19 15:17:00
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