Business cycles fo G7 and European countries

A paper proposes classical business cycle turning points for the G7 and a number of European countries based on industrial production. This proposal enables the examination of the international nature of cyclical movements free from arbitrary assumptions about the trend. In particular, it is shown that cyclical asymmetry is common, with slopes during declines being generally larger in magnitude than during expansions. A binary measure of association for expansion and contraction regimes indicates a core group of European countries related to each other and apparently linked to the US and Japan through Germany.