Abstract
The disruptive economic implications of the 2007 financial crisis on the US economy, as well as on the world economy as a whole, demanded the attention of researchers and policymakers. For the most part, before 2007, policymakers neglected the role played by financial factors and the potentially disruptive impact fluctuations in these factors might have on the real economy. Policymakers largely believed that financial conditions are driven by real economic conditions, and not the other way around. Over the past three decades, however, financial crises around the world have proven otherwise, therefore financial factors could not merely be monitored and managed by means of simply monitoring and managing real economic conditions. Hence, specific attention needs to be paid to the cyclicality of financial variables in an economy to fully gauge the financial state of an economy and thereby employ effective management in this regard. To effectively manage these complex cycles, one must first be able to measure such cycles and then fully understand the characteristics and identify the drivers of such cycles...
Ph.D. (Finance)