Both global and regional economic linkages have strengthened substantially over the past quarter century. We employ a dynamic factor model to analyze the implications of these linkages for the evolution of global and regional business cycles. Our model allows us to assess the roles played by the...

This paper investigates the relationship between the main business cycles features and the institutional and structural characteristics of countries in which they are observed. We derive the business cycle characteristics of the individual countries using the nonparametric Harding-Pagan...

This paper characterizes business cycle phenomena in a sample of 22 developed and developing economies using a univariate Markov regime switching approach. It examines the efficacy of this approach for detecting business cycle turning points and for identifying distinct economic regimes for each...

This paper puts forward a global macro model comprising 43 countries and covering the period from Q1 1995 to Q4 2011. Our regional focus is on countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Applying a global VAR (GVAR) model, we...

We examine the relationship between institutions, culture and cyclical fluctuations for a sample of 45 European, Middle Eastern and North African countries. Better governance is associated with shorter and less severe contractions and milder expansions. Certain cultural traits, such as lack of...

This paper analyses the comovement of the German and Austrian economies and the transmission of German shocks to Austria. Static and dynamic correlation measures show a strong comovement and a change of the relative position in time of these two economies. The transmission of German shocks to...

Identifying business cycle stylised facts is essential as these often form the basis for the construction and validation of theoretical business cycle models. Furthermore, understanding the cyclical patterns in economic activity, and their causes, is important to the decisions of both...