We are now living in a period of disillusion in the ability of economic policy to stabilise the economy. This is proven by the onset of severe world recession in the early 1980s and the inability to invert the negative phase of the business cycle under way in the industrialized countries in the early 1990s. The failure of old policies motivates the research into the causes of economic fluctuations and their measurement whose results are published in this volume

Inhalt
Introduction; P.Annunziato & M.Baldassarri - PART 1: ECONOMIC CYCLE FLUCTUATIONS - Theory and Measurement of Economic Cycles: A Recent Debate; M.Lippi - On the Sources of Fluctuation of the Italian Economy: A Structural VAR Analysis; P.Onofri, P.Paruolo & B.Salituro - New Measures of the Permanent Component of Output: A Multi-Country Analysis; S.Fachin, A.Gavosto & G.Pellegrini - The Real Business Cycle Theory; G.Schlitzer - PART 2: CYCLE INDICATORS AND ANALYSIS - The Use of Cyclical Indicators in Business Cycle Analysis; P.Annunziato - Leading Indicators for OECD, Central and Eastern European Countries; R.Nilsson - A Monthly Model of the Industrial Sector for Business-Cycle Analysis; E.Giovannini - Business Cycle Analysis and Industrial Production Forecasts; P.Gennari - Death and Rebirth of the Business Cycle; I.Cipolletta - Index