Friedman's `plucking' model, in which output cannot exceed a ceiling level but is occasionally plucked downward by recessions, is tested using Kim and Nelson's formal econometric specification on output data from the G-7 countries. Considerable support for the model is obtained, leading us to...

We estimate a model that incorporates two key features of business cycles, comovement among economic variables and switching between regimes of boom and slump, to quarterly UK data for the last four decades. A common factor, interpreted as a composite indicator of coincident variables, and...

In this paper we consider an extension of Hamilton's Markov chain model of output growth that allows for a one-time structural break in the hyperparameters. We fit this model to post-war quarterly output growth data from the G-7 economies and find evidence for such a structural break in each of...