Jim Been

Economic Impacts of the Burst of the Dot-com-bubble: Comparing the Netherlands and the Us Jim Been

The classical assumption that an economic downturn is ?V-shaped? in the US and more ?Ushaped? in the Netherlands is refuted in this paper by analyzing the downturn that followed the dot-com-bubble. The duration is longer in the Netherlands, while the depth is certainly not smaller. Another interesting observation is that the start of the downturn occurred at a later point in time than in the US. The analysis of several macroeconomic variables and the differences in the sectoral dynamics show that the dynamics of the downturn can be explained by the importance of the exogenous shock of exports on the Business Cycle. The conclusion regarding this specific analyzed downturn is that the downturn in the Dutch economy is not that much directly related to the burst of the bubble. In stead, the economy seemed to be affected by the consequences of the burst for international trade and so Dutch exports. The US seemed to be the epicentre of the burst which had a significant influence on the World Business Cycle through the US role in international trade. These observations are again seen in the latest internationally spread downturn.