Factors Affecting on the Business Cycles in OPEC Countries: Evidence from the Quantile Panel Regressions Model

Identifying the behavior of business cycles and factors affecting business cycles has always been one of the most important issues in macroeconomics. Importance of business cycles and the unique economic structure of OPEC member countries, so, this article identifies the behavior of business cycles in these countries. This study uses Quantile Panel Regressions Model to examine the impact of variables such as government expenditure, trade openness, liquidity growth, oil prices and two dummy variables of the global recession and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement on the formation of business cycles in OPEC countries in the period 2000-2019. The results show that the values of the coefficients of each variable in different quantiles were significantly different from each other. Government expenditure and trade openness in the initial quantile has been in the agreed direction to the cycles and the End quantile opposite direction. The results of the effect of liquidity growth show that in the initial and end quantile has been agreed with direction to the cycles and in the middle quantile opposite direction to the cycles. Oil prices have also been agreed with the direction of the business cycles. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement variable in the first quantile has a significant impact on business cycles and the global financial recession has also acted against cycles.