36 Financial cycles and crises
2.2.1 Measuring nancial cycles
Previous research on nancial cycles has been based mostly on historical narra-
tives (e.g. Kindleberger, 1978). Current research is more analytical and system-
atic. However, nancial cycles are not directly observable and must be inferred
(Schüler etal., 2015). Consequently, there is no consensus on the precise deni-
tion of nancial cycles (Borio, 2014). In a broad sense, they are generally charac-
terized by common uctuations in a set of variables–credit and asset prices–that
pertain to the nancial sector and are important for nancial stability.
According to this literature, there is a strong relationship between nancial
and business cycles. However, nancial cycles a ...