Business cycle

The recurring fluctuations in economic activity, including expansions and contractions in output, employment, income, and sales. These movements vary in duration and severity and do not follow a fixed schedule.

Aggregate demand: Total planned spending on final goods and services in an economy at different price levels. Shifts in spending can raise output during expansions or deepen contractions.
Gross domestic product: The market value of final goods and services produced within a country during a period. Real GDP is a central measure of economy-wide output across expansions and contractions.
Clement Juglar: A French physician and economist who documented recurring commercial crises in the nineteenth century. His work helped establish the idea of recurring business fluctuations.
Long-run economic growth: A sustained increase in an economy’s productive capacity and output over long periods. Growth concerns the long-term path; business cycles are shorter fluctuations around it.
Okun's law: An empirical relationship between changes in unemployment and deviations of output from its potential level. It summarizes how contractions in output are associated with rising unemployment.
Inventory cycle: Fluctuations in production driven by firms adjusting inventories as sales diverge from expectations. Inventory swings can amplify changes in production over the course of a cycle.
Unemployment: The condition of people without work who are available for and seeking employment. Employment typically weakens in contractions and recovers as activity expands.
Wesley Clair Mitchell: An American economist who studied business cycles using systematic empirical evidence. His research shaped modern measurement and description of cyclical movements.
Economic development: The process of improving living standards and economic capabilities, often alongside structural change. Development is broader than recurring changes in aggregate activity.
Automatic stabilizer: A fiscal mechanism that changes taxes or transfers automatically as economic conditions change. These mechanisms support incomes during downturns without requiring new legislation.

Linked from 32 pages