This paper proposes a simple econometric procedure to test for the synchronization of credit cycles. Using a century of data for 14 advanced economies, we find that credit cycle synchronization dropped in the early 1920s from initially relatively high levels. Between the 1920s and the 1970s synchronization was overall low and concentrated within five, predominantly regional, clusters. However, synchronization has significantly increased in the post-Bretton Woods era and has become less associated with geographic proximity: Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US form a single major credit cycle cluster since the 1970s. A smaller cluster is formed by Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden, while the German credit cycle follows a distinct path. Using logistic regressions, we find that the synchronization of credit and business cycles go hand in hand. Our findings are especially relevant for the international coordination of macroprudential policy, as well as to spur and inform further analysis on credit cycle dynamics.

This paper investigates whether credit constraints in the US economy amplify the international propagation of US financial shocks. We model the dynamics of the US economy jointly with global macroeconomic and financial variables using a threshold vector autoregression. This model captures regime-specific dynamics conditional on the severity of credit constraints in the US economy. We identify three main episodes of tight credit in US financial history over the past thirty years. These occur in the late-1980s, in the early 2000s, and during the 2007–09 financial crisis. We find that US financial shocks are associated with a significant contraction in global economic activity in times of tight credit. By contrast, there is little impact of US financial shocks on the global economy in normal times. This asymmetry highlights an international dimension of the US financial accelerator mechanism.