What a new set of indexes tells us about state and national business cycles

Many people are interested in comparing the pattern of economic growth in their state with growth in other states or in the nation. Although the National Bureau of Economic Research sets dates for peaks and troughs of national business cycles, we lack official dates for turning points in state economies. Some states have suffered recessions when the nation did not, and some avoided recessions during some national downturns. In this article, Ted Crone presents information on a recently constructed set of coincident indexes for the 50 states. These indexes can be used to define business cycles at the state level and can tell us how business cycles and the overall patterns of growth have differed among the states.