The great moderation in economic volatility: a view from the states

Since the middle of the 1980s, economic growth in the U.S. has become much more stable than it was in the preceding three decades, and the magnitude of the decline is substantial. What accounts for the decline in volatility, and why is the decline important for policymakers? In “The Great Moderation in Economic Volatility: A View from the States,” Jerry Carlino discusses these questions and makes the case that using state-level rather than just national data offers a much larger testing ground for analyzing the decline in economic volatility.