Business Cycles Theory, History, Indicators, and Forecasting
by Victor Zarnowitz
University of Chicago Press, 1992
Cloth: 978-0-226-97890-1 | Paper: 978-0-226-97891-8 | Electronic: 978-0-226-97892-5
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226978925.001.0001
ABOUT THIS BOOKTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This volume presents the most complete collection available of the work of Victor Zarnowitz, a leader in the study of business cycles, growth, inflation, and forecasting..

With characteristic insight, Zarnowitz examines theories of the business cycle, including Keynesian and monetary theories and more recent rational expectation and real business cycle theories. He also measures trends and cycles in economic activity; evaluates the performance of leading indicators and their composite measures; surveys forecasting tools and performance of business and academic economists; discusses historical changes in the nature and sources of business cycles; and analyzes how successfully forecasting firms and economists predict such key economic variables as interest rates and inflation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

I. Theories and Evidence

1. Macroeconomics and Business Cycles: An Overview

2. Recent Work on Business Cycles in Historical Perspective

3. Facts and Factors in the Modern Evolution of U.S. Economic Fluctuations

4. Cyclical Aspects of Cost and Price Movements

5. Research during the First 50 Years of the National Bureau

II. History and Measurement

6. How Trends and Fluctuations Are Observed, Modeled, and Simulated: An Introduction

7. Business Cycles and Growth

8. The Regularity of Business Cycles

9. Econometric Model Simulations and the Cyclical Characteristics of the Economy

III. Indicators

10. Cyclical Indicators: Structure, Significance, and Uses

11. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators

12. Major Macroeconomic Variables and Leading Indexes

IV. Forecasting

13. On Short-Term Predictions of General Economic Conditions

14. An Analysis of Annual and Multiperiod Quarterly Aggregate Forecasts

15. The Accuracy of Individual and Group Forecasts

16. Rational Expectations and Macroeconomic Forecasts

17. Consensus and Uncertainty in Economic Prediction

18. The Record and Improvability of Economic Forecasting

References

Author Index

Subject Index