Business Cycles: Real Facts and a Monetary Myth

Abstract

Ever since In his essay, Koopmans presents two basic criticisms of Burns and Mitchell's study. The first is that it provides no systematic discussion of the theoretical reasons for including particular variables over others in their empirical investigation. Before variables can be selected, Koopmans argues, some notion is needed of the theory that generates the economic fluctuations. With this first criticism we completely agree: Theory is crucial in selecting which facts to report.