The economics of skyscrapers
Business Cycle and Skyscrapers
A closer look at patterns from the past and present shows an interesting correlation between the construction of the world’s next tallest building and an impending financial crisis: New York 1930; Chicago 1974; Kuala Lumpar 1997 and Dubai 2010. Yet often the world’s tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom. The study of this apparent relationship has led to the construction of an index which was first published in 1999; the building and an economic crisis has proved to be highly correlated. Skyscraper construction has been characterized by long periods of inactivity interspersed with by short periods of erratically timed, intense activity typically coinciding with excessive monetary expansion in the global economy. Skyscrapers are perhaps the ultimate architecture of capitalism. Based upon Skyscraper completion dates the chart below shows the US building booms of the 1890s, the 1930s and 1970s that corresponded with the completion of their record holding buildings. However, it also shows the late 1980s building boom associated with the US Savings and Loan Crisis and a recent building boom that corresponds with the current financial crisis. construction of the world’s tallest 195
Figure 3 - The Boom of Skyscrapers construction
The two charts suggest a link between skyscrapers date of completion during a period with a slowdown in the growth of GDP from 1950 to 2015. The mid 1970s continual decrease in the growth of GDP. Similar events h -1970s building boom coincided with the ave happened in the 1990s and 2000s,
195 Examples of famous skyscraper built and the recession linked can be found in the Appendix 1
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