• DOI:10.1017/S0022050706000040
Corpus ID: 153478495

An Improved Annual Chronology of U.S. Business Cycles since the 1790s

@article{Davis2006AnIA,
  title={An Improved Annual Chronology of U.S. Business Cycles since the 1790s},
  author={Joseph H. Davis},
  journal={The Journal of Economic History},
  year={2006},
  volume={66},
  pages={103 - 121}
}

• Joseph H. Davis
• Published 2006
• Economics, History
• The Journal of Economic History

The NBER's pre–World War I dating of business cycles implies that the U.S. economy spent nearly every other year in recession. This article extends earlier efforts at redating for the 1796–1914 period using a single metric: Davis's (2004) annual industrial production index. The new chronology alters more than 40 percent of the peak and troughs and removes the most questionable cycles. An important implication of this is the lack of discernible differences in the frequency and duration of… Expand