War cycles
Article
The Wikipedia link titled War cycles redirects to the article on Edward R. Dewey, an American economist who studied recurring patterns in economics, war, geology, biology, sociology, and other fields. Dewey became interested in cycles while working as an economic analyst during the Great Depression.
He argued that time series from apparently unrelated subjects sometimes displayed similar periods and phases. His work emphasised empirical collection, charting, and comparison of repeated fluctuations rather than explanations based solely on conventional economic theory.
Dewey helped reorganise the Permanent Committee created after the 1931 Matamek conference into the Foundation for the Study of Cycles in 1941. The foundation collected research, published the journal Cycles, and encouraged cross-disciplinary investigation of periodic behaviour.
Claims about regular cycles in wars and other social events remain controversial because historical events are difficult to define consistently and sample sizes are small. Statistical significance can be overstated when many possible periods, dates, and event classifications are tested.
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- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_cycles