Moving Macroeconomic Analysis beyond Business Cycles

RePEc Short ID: plu38
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6505-7807

Haltom, Renee Courtois; Lubik, Thomas A.; Matthes, Christian; Verona, Fabio

Briefing

Moving Macroeconomic Analysis beyond Business Cycles

Abstract: When analyzing macroeconomic data, it helps to separate longer-term trends from business cycle fluctuations, which may have distinct causes and respond differently to policy. This Economic Brief presents research that uses a novel methodology to establish stylized facts for four key macroeconomic variables for cycles of different durations. This brief makes the case that research and policy should focus on four aspects of economic fluctuations: a short-term component (cycles of less than two years), a business cycle component (cycles between two and eight years), a medium-term component (cycles up to thirty-two years), and a long-term component (the trend).

Keywords: business cycles; wavelet-based filtering; fluctuations;