Human ingenuity reaches new dizzying heights

Could it be that the building of record breaking Skyscrapers could be used as a tool to predict the onset of economic downturn?

The answer according to economist Andrew Lawrence, research director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, is quite possibly, Yes!

Back in Jan 1999 Lawrence put forward a concept which he called The Skyscraper Index.

He suggested that Skyscraper construction seemed to have a direct correlation to business cycles. Many skyscrapers over the past century seemed to have been constructed on the eve of economic downturns, at the end of a business cycle when economic growth had been exhausted. It wasn’t that they caused the downturn, just that they were a predictor of it.

Andrew Lawrence linked this phenomenon to economic factors which seemed to progress through a boom and peak at the end of the boom cycle. These factors were overinvestment, speculation and monetary expansion.

A decline in interest rates at the beginning of a boom has at least three effects which contribute to skyscraper construction. Firstly it drives land prices higher, hence the attractiveness of constructing a tall building with a small footprint and thereby increasing vertical density. Secondly, declining interest rates allow an increase in the average size of a company, creating demand for more office space. Thirdly, low interest rates provide investment to construction technologies that enable developers to break earlier records. All three factors peak at the end of the growth period.

Although some critics have dismissed the index as being an unreliable tool, nevertheless it appeals to the common sense approach when we consider the above mentioned factors in relation to speculation and overinvestment during boom times.

The table below lists previous skyscrapers which were all built on the cusp of recessions, and were often completed after the booms were well and truly over.

Record breaking skyscrapers and associated crises

As for the Burj, the coming year will tell us whether Emaar will be able to add yet another accolade to its collection – that of No.1 Endorser of the Skyscraper Index.

The Burj Dubai - the latest record holder

For more on this indicator, try the following:

Skyscrapers and Business Cycles [Ludwig von Mises Institute]
Skyscraper Index [Wikipedia]



This article first published here on www.dubaipropertycrash.com