Tables from " The American Business Cycle "

A feature of that volume is an extensive data appendix, compliled as a project independent of the conference in collaboration with Nathan S. Balke. The unique value of this data set is the fact that it is the only existing source for the pre-1947 quarterly data, as NIPA quarterly data series do not otherwise exist before 1947. These files include the components of GDP back from 1941 to 1919 and the quarterly real GDP back to 1875.

Quarterly Data Downloads:

abcq.html HTML

abcq.dta Stata

abcq.csv ASCII

abcq.xls Excel

Monthly Data Downloads:

abcm.html HTML

abcm.dta Stata

abcm.csv ASCII

abcm.xls Excel

The .dta file may be fetched from within Stata, e.g.:

use https://www.nber.org/data/abc/abcq.dta

Quarterly 1875 to 1983

1 YEAR 4-digit Year

2 QUARTER Quarter

3 GNP Nominal GNP

4 RGNP72 Real GNP (1972 dollars)

5 GNPD72 GNP Deflator (1972=100)

6 TRGNP Trend Real GNP

7 CPRATE Commercial Paper rate

8 CORPYIELD Yield on Corporate Bonds

9 M1 Money Supply M1

10 M2 Money Supply M2

11 BASE Money Supply Base

12 CSTOCK Index of all Common Stocks

13 WPRICE67 Index of wholesale prices

Quarterly 1919-1941, 1947-1983

1 YEAR 4-digit Year

2 QUARTER Quarter

3 PRODURNO Producers Durable Equipment, Nominal

4 PRODUR72 Producers Durable Equipment, Real 1972$

5 PRODURDF  Producers Durable Equipment, Deflator

6 NONRESNO Non-Residential Structures, Nominal

7 NONRES72 Non-Residential Structures, Real 1972$

8 NONRESDF Non-Residential Structures, Deflator

9 IRESNOM Investment Residential Structures, Nominal

10 IRES72 Investment Residential Structures, 1972$

11 IRESDEF Investment Residential Structures, Deflator

12 DBUSINOM Change Bus Inventories, Nominal

13 DBUSI72 Change Bus Inventories, 1972$

14 CDURNOM Consumption Durable Goods, Nominal

15 CDUR72 Consumption Durable Goods, 1972$

16 CDURDEF Consumption Durable Goods, Deflator

17 CNDURNOM Nondurable Goods and Services, Nominal

18 CNDUR72 Nondurable Goods and Services, 1972$

19 CNDURDEF Nondurable Goods and Services, Deflator

20 XPTNOM Exports, Nominal

21 XPT72 Exports, 1972$

22 XPTDEF Exports, Deflator

23 MPTNOM Imports, Nominal

24 MPT72 Imports, 1972$

25 MPTDEF Imports, Deflator

26 GOVPURNO Government Purchases, Nominal

27 GOVPUR72 Government Purchases, 1972$

28 GOVPURDF Government Purchases, Deflator

29 NCSPDE72 Net Capital Stock Producers Durable Equipment, 1972$

30 NCSBS72 Net Capital Stock Business Structures, 1972$

31 NCSCON72 Net Capital Stock Consumer Durable, 1972$

32 CCSPDE72 Cost Capital Services Producer Durables, 1972$

33 CCSBS72 Cost Capital Services Business Structures, 1972$

Monthly 1929-1942

1 YEAR 4-digit Year

2 MONTH Month

3 PRDCTN29 Total Manufacturing: Production 1929$

4 SHPMNT29 Total Manufacturing: Shipments 1929$

5 INVTRY29 Total Manufacturing: EOM Inventory 1929$

6 PRDCTN Total Manufacturing: Production

7 SHPMNT Total Manufacturing: Shipments

8 INVTRY Total Manufacturing: EOM Inventories

Corrections to the Published Data

All the dollar amounts are given in both real and nominal amounts, and we have checked for consistency. In one case (Nominal Shipments: October 1942) we have here replaced the published number 18713.6 with a seemingly correct 28713.6. In the case of GNP for 1898:4 there is a small (>1%) discrepancy, but no correction is obvious.

The NBER also hosts the Macrohistory Database with many more series collected by the NBER in its founding days and through the 1960s.

Comments welcome: feenberg at nber dot org