Macro-financial dataset (quarterly since 1950)

This page provides the new long macro-financial dataset (in excel, csv & stata formats) used for the following paper.

Monnet, Eric, and Damien Puy (2021), "One Ring to Rule Them All? New Evidence on World Cycles". CEPR Discussion paper DP15958 [supersedes the 2019 IMF version] Ungated version

Abstract: We estimate world cycles using a new quarterly macro-financial dataset assembled using IMF archives, covering a large set of countries since 1950. World cycles, real and financial, exist and US shocks drive them. But their strength is modest for GDP and credit. Global financial cycles are much weaker for credit than for asset prices. We also challenge the view that synchronization has increased with globalization. Although this is true for prices (goods and assets), it is not for quantities (output and credit). World business and credit cycles were as strong during Bretton Woods (1950-1972) as during the Globalization period (1982-2006). We investigate the economic and financial forces driving our results, connect them to the existing literature and discuss important policy implications.

The dataset consists of five variables, available for a large cross section of countries since 1950, at quarterly frequency: (i) Real GDP (ii) Credit, (iii) Consumer Prices, (iv) Stock Prices, and (v) Sovereign Bond Yields .

It currently covers (i) 37 countries for real GDP (ii) 45 countries for credit (iii) 48 countries for consumer prices (iv) 26 countries for stock prices and (v) 18 countries for bond yields.

The data starts in 1950 (or early 1950s in few cases) and currently ends in 2019 Q4 for all variables.

We refer readers to the documentation for important details about the methodology, sources and definitions.

If you use the data, please cite the current version of the working paper as the source of the data (see bibtex ref. below).

Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF WORLD BUSINESS CYCLES:

In a previous version of this paper dedicated only to output, we conducted a narrative analysis of the world output cycle based on the IMF annual reports published between 1950 and 2014 and find that the world cycles described in IMF reports match almost exactly the turning points and phases identified by our estimation procedure. This narrative analysis is freely available online here: Monnet, Eric, and Damien Puy. Has Globalization Really Increased Business Cycle Synchronization?. No. 2016/054. International Monetary Fund, 2016.


Bibtex references:

@article{monnet2021,

title={One Ring to Rule Them All? New Evidence on World Cycles},

author={Monnet, Eric and Puy, Damien},

year={2021},

number={15958},

journal={CEPR Discussion Paper}

}

@techreport{monnet2016has,

title={Has Globalization Really Increased Business Cycle Synchronization?},

author={Monnet, Eric and Puy, Damien and others},

year={2016},

number={54},

institution={International Monetary Fund}

}