What Is the Business Cycle? – Work, Illustration, Measures, and More

What Is the Business Cycle?

The business cycle can also define as the downward and upward fluctuations of gross domestic product (GDP) along with its natural growth rate over a long time.

How Does the Business Cycle Work?

The duration of a business cycle is the time containing a single boom and contraction in sequence. The time it takes to complete this sequence is referred to as the length of the business cycle.

Each business cycle has four phases: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. They don’t occur at regular intervals, but they do have recognizable indicators.

Illustration of the Business Cycle

• An expansion is between the trough and the peak. That’s when the economy is growing. The gross domestic product, which measures economic output, is increasing. The GDP growth rate is in the healthy 2% to 3% range. Unemployment reaches its natural rate of 3.5% to 4.5%.
• Inflation is near its 2% target.
• And the stock market is in a bull market. A well-managed economy can remain in the expansion phase for years, which is called a Goldilocks economy.
• The expansion phase nears its end when the economy overheats, and the GDP growth rate is greater than 3%. Inflation is greater than 2% and may reach the double digits. Investors are in a state of “irrational exuberance.” That’s when they create asset bubbles.
• The peak is the second phase. It is the month when the expansion transitions into the contraction phase.
• The third phase is a contraction. It starts at the peak and ends at the trough.
• Economic growth weakens. GDP growth falls below 2%. When it turns negative, that is what economists call a recession. Mass layoffs make headline news. The unemployment rate begins to rise.
• It doesn’t happen until toward the end of the contraction phase because it’s a lagging indicator. Businesses wait to hire new workers until they are sure the recession is over. Stocks enter a bear market as investors sell.
• The trough is the fourth phase. That’s the month when the economy transitions from the contraction phase to the expansion phase. It’s when the economy hits the bottom.
• The business cycle’s four phases can be so severe that they’re also called the boom and bust cycle.

Who Measures the Business Cycle?

The National Bureau of Economic Research determines business cycle stages using quarterly GDP growth rates. It also uses monthly economic indicators, such as employment, real personal income, industrial production, and retail sales.

It takes time to analyze this data, so the NBER doesn’t tell you the phase until after it’s begun. You can look at the indicators yourself to determine what phase of the business cycle we are currently in.

Who Manages the Business Cycle?

• The government manages the business cycle. Legislators use fiscal policy to influence the economy.
• They use expansionary fiscal policy to end a recession and should employ contractionary fiscal policy to keep the economy from overheating.
• But that rarely happens because they get voted out of office when they raise taxes or cut popular programs.
• The nation’s central bank uses monetary policy. It lowers interest rates to end a contraction or trough, called expansionary monetary policy.
• The central bank raises rates to manage an expansion, so it doesn’t peak. That’s contractionary monetary policy.
• The goal of economic policy is to keep the economy growing at a sustainable rate. It should be strong enough to create jobs for everyone who wants one but slow enough to avoid inflation.
• Three factors cause each phase of the business cycle: the forces of supply and demand, the availability of capital, and consumer confidence.
• The most critical is confidence in the future. The economy grows when there is faith in the future and policymakers. It does the opposite when confidence drops.
• The history of U.S. business cycles since 1929 can give an overview of how this measure of confidence has affected the U.S. economy through the decades.

Examples of Business Cycles

1. The 2008 recession was so nasty because the economy immediately contracted 2.3% in the first quarter of 2008. When it rebounded 2.1% in the second quarter, everyone thought the downturn was over.
2. But it contracted another 2.1% in the third quarter, before plummeting 8.4% in the fourth quarter.
3. The economy received another wallop in the first quarter of 2009 when it contracted a brutal 4.4%.
4. In 2008, the unemployment rate rose from 4.9% in January to 7.2% by December.
5. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the trough occurred at the end of the second quarter of 2009. GDP only contracted by 0.6%. Unemployment, though, did rise to 9.5% because of its lagging nature.
6. The expansion phase started in the third quarter of 2009 when GDP rose by 1.5%. That was thanks to the stimulus spending from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
7. The unemployment rate continued to worsen, reaching 10.2% in October. Four years into the expansion phase, the unemployment rate was still above 7%. That’s because the contraction phase was so harsh.
8. The peak that preceded the 2008 recession occurred in the third quarter of 2007. GDP growth was 2.2%.

Conclusion

The business cycle goes through four major phases: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. All businesses and economies go through this cycle, though the length varies.

The Federal Reserve helps manage the process with monetary policy, while heads of state and governing bodies use fiscal policy. Consumer confidence plays a role in managing the economy and the current phase in the cycle.
Also Read: The Best 9 Essential Anti-Theft Car Devices Help to Keep Safe