This book makes an important contribution at the forefront of business cycle theory. The contributors evaluate historical evidence, present new empirical results and suggest that the explanation of business cycle phenomena may, in part, depend on the way in which historical data is interpreted.This innovative book places great emphasis on the complementarity between empirical and theoretical business cycle research. The authors present studies of business cycles concentrating on the Great Depression of the 1930s, early and late nineteenth century American economic history, the United Kingdom before 1914, interwar Germany and Japan, and Canada and the United States during the Gold Standard era. A number of contributions address the Phillips curve and labour markets, and provide illustrations of the use of both macro and micro data. An important finding is the contribution to business cycle research made by hitherto untouched sources of historical labour market microdata. The book demonstrates the importance of the reconstruction of well researched data to our conception and understanding of business cycle phenomena. This book will be useful reading for academics and students of macroeconomics and economic history, with an interest in understanding business cycles.

In this reexamination of Canada's balance of payments experience under the gold standard, the authors develop and empirically test a new portfolio approach to the mechanism of balance of payments adjustment. This adjustment mechanism responded to massive inflows of foreign capital during a critical period of Canada's economic growth in the early years of this century. The authors show that the existence of international mobility of capital requires a fundamental revision of the price-specie-flow theory that has traditionally been used to explain adjustment when the balance of payments was more nearly dominated by the balance of trade. The approach Professors Dick and Floyd take not only answers the critics of Jacob Viner, who first explored the Canadian case after 1900, but also offers a new perspective on how the gold standard in general actually worked. The authors apply standard elementary economic principles to this working of the balance of payments under the gold standard, making this book useful reading for those studying intermediate and upper level economics, especially in the field of international finance.

In this reexamination of Canada's balance of payments experience under the gold standard, the authors develop and empirically test a new portfolio approach to the mechanism of balance of payments adjustment. This adjustment mechanism responded to massive inflows of foreign capital during a critical period of Canada's economic growth in the early years of this century. The authors show that the existence of international mobility of capital requires a fundamental revision of the price-specie-flow theory that has traditionally been used to explain adjustment when the balance of payments was more nearly dominated by the balance of trade. The approach Professors Dick and Floyd take not only answers the critics of Jacob Viner, who first explored the Canadian case after 1900, but also offers a new perspective on how the gold standard in general actually worked. The authors apply standard elementary economic principles to this working of the balance of payments under the gold standard, making this book useful reading for those studying intermediate and upper level economics, especially in the field of international finance.