INVESTIGATING MACROECONOMIC STABILITY USING THE OUTPUT GAP

The purpose of the article is to illustrate the importance of the output gap in analysing macroeconomic stability in general and business cycle dynamics in particular. Ten EU countries are considered, with five old members and five new members. For all ten countries the data for the period 1999-2014 is used, but for four countries, namely France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain additional data is available that goes back to 1965, such that the whole period 1965-2014 is covered, which allows for a particular analysis. An empirical analysis is performed with regard to the behaviour of the output gap for different countries over time. The results obtained allow for relevant comparisons and highlight the usefulness of this indicator as a tool in the study of business cycles.