Has the Similarity of Business Cycles in Europe Increased with the Monetary Integration

We investigate to what extent the business cycles in Europe have become more synchronised since the sixties, using the classical business cycles framework. Four Bry & Boschan-like procedures for dating the turning points are compared. It is found that the cycles across countries have become more idiosyncratic through time, but this is less obvious for the countries of the Euro area. It is also found that the European cycles are increasingly independent from the US cycles. The main conclusion is the existence of a core group within the Euro area with more strongly linked cycles.