This paper quantitatively investigates the Depression of the 1890s and the 1907 recession in the United States. Business Cycle Accounting decomposes economic fluctuations into their contributing factors. The results suggest that both the 1890s and the 1907 recessions were primarily caused by factors that affect the efficiency wedge, i.e. slumps in the economy’s factor productivity. Distortions to the labor wedge played a less important role. Models with financial market frictions that translate into the efficiency wedge are the most promising candidates for explaining the recessionary episodes.

中文翻译：

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美国商业周期1889-1913年：一种会计方法

本文定量研究了1890年代的大萧条和1907年的美国经济衰退。商业周期会计将经济波动分解为其影响因素。结果表明，1890年代和1907年的衰退均主要由影响效率楔形的因素引起，即经济要素生产率的下降。劳动楔形失真的作用不那么重要。具有金融市场摩擦的模型可以转化为效率楔，是解释经济衰退事件的最有希望的候选人。