The Real Business Cycle (RBC) research program has grown spectacularly over the last decade, as its concepts and methods have diffused into mainstream macroeconomics. Yet, there is increasing skepticism that technology shocks are a major source o f business fluctuations. This chapter exposits the basic RBC model and shows that it requires large technology shocks to produce realistic business cy...

We studied the cyclical and growth properties of Brazilian per capita output from 1850 to 2000. Contrary to the experience of some developed countries, we did not find large changes in the volatility of per capita output. However, we obtained evidence that the oscillations in economic activity became more persistent after World War II.

This paper presents two dynamic models of the economy in which credit constraints arise because creditors cannot force debtors to repay debts unless the debts are secured by collateral. The credit system becomes a powerful propagation mechanism by which the effects of shocks persist and amplify through the interaction between collateral values, borrowers' net worth and credit limits. In particu...

A central stream in business strategy research explores the locus of firm rent generation by decomposing accounting profits into effects attributable to time, industry, corporate parent, and individual business segment. This paper expands the scope of this work by examining data on firms from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States and addressing the importance of...