Do Institutions and Culture Matter for Business Cycles?

We examine the relationship between cyclical fluctuations and macroeconomic, institutional, and cultural indicators for 46 countries from Europe and the Mediterranean basin. In the Mediterranean cycles are different: the duration of expansions is shorter; the amplitude of recessions is larger; and cyclical synchronization is smaller than elsewhere. Differences in cultural indicators have strong and significant associations with differences in the persistence and volatility of cyclical fluctuations and their synchronization.