Dupaigne, Martial and Portier, Franck (2012) La "grande récession": une mise en perspective. Revue d'Economie Politique, 122 (n°6). pp. 791-809.

Abstract

This article studies the 2008 onwards recession using 50 years of observations in the
34 OECD member countries. We use this dataset to describe the characteristics (depth,
duration, etc) of a median recession as well as the distribution of those characteristics
over the entire sample of actual recessions, The Great Recession’s depth, duration and
cross-country synchronicity are outstanding.
We extend our analysis to lower levels of aggregation, studying expenditures on one
side and seven sectoral GDP on the other side. We find that the Great recession is
largely investment-driven, while consumption resists in France and, to a lesser extent,
Germany. On the sectoral side, the contraction of French manufacturing is severe. The
negative impact on the construction sector only becomes unusually strong in the last
year of the sample.