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Cycles in the Transportation Sector and the Aggregate Economy

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  • Kajal Lahiri, Wenxiong Yao, and Peg Young

Abstract

Transportation plays a central role in facilitating economic activities across sectors and between regions, and is thus essential to business cycle research. Using four coincident indicators representing different aspects of the transportation sector that include an index of transportation output, payroll, personal consumption and employment, we define the classical business cycle and growth cycle chronologies for this sector. We find that, relative to the economy, business cycles in the transportation sector have an average lead of nearly 6 months at peaks and an average lag of 2 months at troughs. Similar to transportation business cycles, growth slowdowns in this sector also last longer than the economy-wide slowdowns by a few months. This study underscores the importance of transportation indicators in monitoring cyclical movements in the aggregate economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Kajal Lahiri, Wenxiong Yao, and Peg Young, 2003. "Cycles in the Transportation Sector and the Aggregate Economy," Discussion Papers 03-14, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:nya:albaec:03-14
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    File URL: http://www.albany.edu/~klahiri/TRB2004.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Laurent Ferrara & Dominique Guégan, 2006. "Detection of the Industrial Business Cycle using SETAR Models," Journal of Business Cycle Measurement and Analysis, OECD Publishing, Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys, vol. 2005(3), pages 353-371.
    2. Deimena KIYAK & Erika ŽUPERKIENĖ, 2017. "Expression Of The Transport Sector Operational Efficiency Evaluation Methodology (Trends) At Different Stages Of The Economic Cycle," Transport Problems, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Transport, vol. 12(4), pages 109-118, December.

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    Keywords

    Business cycle; Composite coincident index; Dynamic factor model; Regime switching; Growth cycle;
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