"The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change" Historic Data Tables

Source Gordon

Presented here are the tables of quarterly data from Appendix B of "The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change" Edited by Robert J. Gordon. National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Business Cycles Volume 25, University of Chicago Press 1986. For information about sources and methods please see that volume.

Tables from " The American Business Cycle "

A feature of that volume is an extensive data appendix, compliled as a project independent of the conference in collaboration with Nathan S. Balke. The unique value of this data set is the fact that it is the only existing source for the pre-1947 quarterly data, as NIPA quarterly data series do not otherwise exist before 1947. These files include the components of GDP back from 1941 to 1919 and the quarterly real GDP back to 1875.

Quarterly Data Downloads:

abcq.html	HTML
abcq.dta	Stata
abcq.csv	ASCII
abcq.xls	Excel

Monthly Data Downloads

abcm.html	HTML
abcm.dta	Stata
abcm.csv	ASCII
abcm.xls	Excel

The .dta file may be fetched from within Stata, e.g.:

use https://www.nber.org/data/abc/abcq.dta

Quarterly 1875 to 1983

1	YEAR	4-digit Year
2	QUARTER	Quarter
3	GNP	Nominal GNP
4	RGNP72	Real GNP (1972 dollars)
5	GNPD72	GNP Deflator (1972=100)
6	TRGNP	Trend Real GNP
7	CPRATE	Commercial Paper rate
8	CORPYIELD	Yield on Corporate Bonds
9	M1	Money Supply M1
10	M2	Money Supply M2
11	BASE	Money Supply Base
12	CSTOCK	Index of all Common Stocks
13	WPRICE67	Index of wholesale prices

Quarterly 1919-1941,1947-1983

1	YEAR	4-digit Year
2	QUARTER	Quarter
3	PRODURNO	Producers Durable Equipment, Nominal
4	PRODUR72	Producers Durable Equipment, Real 1972$
5	PRODURDF	Producers Durable Equipment, Deflator
6	NONRESNO	Non-Residential Structures, Nominal
7	NONRES72	Non-Residential Structures, Real 1972$
8	NONRESDF	Non-Residential Structures, Deflator
9	IRESNOM	Investment Residential Structures, Nominal
10	IRES72	Investment Residential Structures, 1972$
11	IRESDEF	Investment Residential Structures, Deflator
12	DBUSINOM	Change Bus Inventories, Nominal
13	DBUSI72	Change Bus Inventories, 1972$
14	CDURNOM	Consumption Durable Goods, Nominal
15	CDUR72	Consumption Durable Goods, 1972$
16	CDURDEF	Consumption Durable Goods, Deflator
17	CNDURNOM	Nondurable Goods and Services, Nominal
18	CNDUR72	Nondurable Goods and Services, 1972$
19	CNDURDEF	Nondurable Goods and Services, Deflator
20	XPTNOM	Exports, Nominal
21	XPT72	Exports, 1972$
22	XPTDEF	Exports, Deflator
23	MPTNOM	Imports, Nominal
24	MPT72	Imports, 1972$
25	MPTDEF	Imports, Deflator
26	GOVPURNO	Government Purchases, Nominal
27	GOVPUR72	Government Purchases, 1972$
28	GOVPURDF	Government Purchases, Deflator
29	NCSPDE72	Net Capital Stock Producers Durable Equipment, 1972$
30	NCSBS72	Net Capital Stock Business Structures, 1972$
31	NCSCON72	Net Capital Stock Consumer Durable, 1972$
32	CCSPDE72	Cost Capital Services Producer Durables, 1972$
33	CCSBS72	Cost Capital Services Business Structures, 1972$

Monthly 1929-1942

1	YEAR	4-digit Year
2	MONTH	Month
3	PRDCTN29	Total Manufacturing: Production 1929$
4	SHPMNT29	Total Manufacturing: Shipments 1929$
5	INVTRY29	Total Manufacturing: EOM Inventory 1929$
6	PRDCTN	Total Manufacturing: Production
7	SHPMNT	Total Manufacturing: Shipments
8	INVTRY	Total Manufacturing: EOM Inventories

Corrections to the Published Data

All the dollar amounts are given in both real and nominal amounts, and we have checked for consistency. In one case (Nominal Shipments: October 1942) we have here replaced the published number 18713.6 with a seemingly correct 28713.6. In the case of GNP for 1898:4 there is a small (>1%) discrepancy, but no correction is obvious.

The NBER also hosts the Macrohistory Database with many more series collected by the NBER in its founding days and through the 1960s.

Posted February 2008 by feenberg at nber dot org. Comments welcome