The 2001 recession and the states of the Eighth Federal Reserve District

This paper examines and compares the recent business cycle experiences of the seven states that lie partly or wholly within the Eighth Federal Reserve District (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee). For the period surrounding the 1990-91 NBER recession, six of the seven states had recessions that were much shorter than for the country as a whole. For the period surrounding the 2001 NBER recession, four states-Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee-entered and exited recession earlier than the country as a whole. Recessions in the other three states began earlier and ended later than for the country as a whole.