ABSTRACT
A key goal of the conference was to try to identify economic causes of business cycles, rather than attributing cycles to “shocks.” Technological changes are very positively correlated with output and business cycles, a relationship that has led many observers to conclude that technology shocks cause fluctuations. Peter Temin examines the causes of US business cycles. In developing his taxonomy of causes, Temin points out three inherent problems such as idea of a cause, great depression, and literature on recessions, with the effort. Christopher Sims examines one of the most contentious questions in macroeconomics: the role of monetary policy in twentieth-century business cycles. Agustin Carstens contributes a view of recessions and policy from the perspective of emerging economies such as Mexico. Susanto Basu argues that neoclassical economists have misinterpreted the link between technological change and business cycles by misusing the standard measure of technological change: the Solow residual, named after M.I.T.
