Business Cycles in the Phillips Machine

Over the summer of 2003, the author undertook the refurbishment of the Cambridge Phillips Machine with help from technicians in the Cambridge University Engineering Dept and with advice from economists. The Machine now works and - moreover - is safe to work with. The Machine has since been used to give numerous working demonstrations to a wide variety of audiences from schoolchildren to distinguished economists. This paper describes some of the standard experiments that can be conducted on the Machine. Also described are more recent simulations which attempt to demonstrate the possibility of generating business cycles - of both linear and nonlinear Hicksian types - from the basic accelerator-multiplier system.