What Are the Driving Forces of International Business Cycles?

Mario J. Crucini, M. Ayhan Kose, Christopher Otrok

NBER Working Paper No. 14380
Issued in October 2008
NBER Program(s):   IFM

We examine the driving forces of G-7 business cycles. We decompose national business cycles into common and nation-specific components using a dynamic factor model. We also do this for driving variables found in business cycle models: productivity; measures of fiscal and monetary policy; the terms of trade and oil prices. We find a large common factor in oil prices, productivity, and the terms of trade. Productivity is the main driving force, with other drivers isolated to particular nations or sub-periods. Along these lines, we document shifts in the correlation of the G-7 component of each driver with the overall G-7 cycle.

(308 K)

Published: Mario Crucini & Ayhan Kose & Christopher Otrok. "What are the driving forces of international business cycles?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics. Volume 14, Issue 1. (January 2011)

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Acknowledgments

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