Business Cycles

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses business cycles, which are recurring periods of expansion and contraction in the economy. The paper shows that properly analyzing the business economy and predicting the direction in which it is going for purposes of business and investment decisions is important to know what phase of the business cycle it is in. Forecasts and analysis can be based on major indicators such as GDP and stock indices, which provide quantifiable information on macroeconomic movement, trends and direction.

From the Paper:

"The economy experiences periods of recurrent expansion and contraction; the pattern of recession and recovery is called the business cycle. A business cycle has been defined as "recurrent sequences of cumulative expansions an contraction in various economic processes which are both sufficiently diffused and sufficiently synchronized to show up as major fluctuations in comprehensive measures of employment, product, income and sales." (Hildebrand, 1992). The definition of business cycles includes a requirement that expansions and contractions be diffused throughout the economy. Transition points across cycles are called peaks and troughs; a peak is the transition from the end of an expansion to the start of a contraction, while a trough occurs at the bottom of a recession just as the economy enters a recovery."

More papers on Business Cycles:

• Essay # 24869 : "Interest Rates And Business Cycles"
• Essay # 27480 : "Business Cycles and Interest Rates"
• Dissertation or Thesis # 92325 : "Turkish Political Business Cycles"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: