In the late 1990s, the internet boom required new techniques and practices from project management that were more overtly agile and (perceived as being) outside of the realm of traditional methodologies. At the time, and to this day to a large extent, traditional methodologies had been the single recognised toolset available to a project manager: and then only really addressing the ‘harder’ dis...

Professor Ahiakpor’s (2008) comment on my article (Garrison, 2004) warrants a comprehensive response. Ahiakpor questions the validity of my use of the production possibilities frontier, the plausibility of the market mechanisms illuminated by my analytical framework, and my interpretation of Ludwig von Mises’s notions of “forced saving” in connection with business cycles. According to the Austr...

The housing and credit markets are closely linked. This paper presents VAR evidence that house prices can generate financial and business cycle dynamics. An increase in house prices leads to a boom in mortgage and real estate construction lending. Leverage decreases in the short run before rising at longer-run horizons across households and most financial intermediaries, irrespective of their p...

Web exclusive, August 2006 IT executives know that the right investments in technology can deliver a significant competitive advantage. Over the past 50 years, companies such as American Airlines, Apple Computer, Frito-Lay, Google, and Wal-Mart Stores have changed the competitive rules in their respective sectors by introducing technology-enabled innovations. But at many companies today, CIOs a...

This paper investigates the relationship between permanent and transitory components of U.S. recessions in an empirical model allowing for business cycle asymmetry. Using a common stochastic trend representation for real GNP and consumption, we divide real GNP into permanent and transitory components, the dynamics of which are different in booms vs. recessions. We find evidence of substantial a...

When a boom ends, the downturn is generally sharp and short. When growth resumes, the boom is more gradual. Our explanation rests on learning about productivity. When agents believe productivity is high, they work, invest, and produce more. More production generates higher precision information. When the boom ends, precise estimates of the slowdown prompt decisive reactions: Investment and labo...