stop-go cycle

stop-go cycle

the application by government of available macroeconomic tools to stimulate and then dampen economic activity. Such tools are used in counter-cyclical DEMAND MANAGEMENT policy to try to offset the fluctuations in economic activity associated with the BUSINESS CYCLE. Stop-go policies are often referred to in a negative sense, in that government policies of this type during the 1960s and early 1970s, especially, were either ill-timed or involved injections or withdrawals of an incorrect magnitude.

See MACROECONOMIC POLICY.