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Business Cycle Measurement

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
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Abstract

We describe different ways of measuring the business cycle. Institutions such as the NBER, OECD and IMF do this by locating the turning points in series taken to represent the aggregate level of economic activity. The turning points are determined according to rules that either come from a parametric model or are nonparametric. Once located, information can be extracted on cycle characteristics. We also distinguish between cases where single and multiple series are used to represent the level of activity.

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Harding, D., Pagan, A. (2018). Business Cycle Measurement. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2322

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