In October 2004, the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) held its first annual research conference. Its theme was "Business Cycles and Growth in Europe". The thirteen papers presented are collected here in revised form in two volumes as Economic Paper number 227, 1/2...

In the 1990s the world economy was hit by a series of unusually deep crises with far-reaching consequences, the first of which occurred in Finland and Sweden. This paper compares the cost of the crisis of the 1990s with the costs caused by all major crises and depressions since the 1870s in the...