ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop an alternative conception of business cycles and a corresponding methodology for their identification. It deals with the development of alternative conceptualisations of the above-mentioned cycles and discusses the development of an alternative methodology for the identification of these cycles. There are few conceptualisations of global cycles in the literature, notwithstanding the observed synchronised cyclical movement of different economies and groups of economies—hence, the need for such a conceptualisation. The chapter suggests that one might expect to more readily observe cycles pertaining to groupings of countries in the global economy, especially groupings of developing countries. As with the conceptualisation of the global cycle, so too with its identification: the absence of any appreciable amount of mainstream literature on this makes it difficult to develop an alternative identification of such a cycle on the basis of a critical appraisal of the relevant literature. The chapter highlights the usefulness of identifying cycles pertaining to sub-global groupings of countries.
