Correlation Between the World's Tallest Buildings and Economic Downturns « Alpha Dinar- talking Gulf finance

Correlation Between the World's Tallest Buildings and Economic Downturns « Alpha Dinar- talking Gulf finance:

February 15, 2009 by Saud Economist Andrew Lawrence came up with the Skyscraper’s Index which shows the correlation between the construction of the world tallest buildings and economic cycles. His thesis is that in years in which the tallest building is complete or near completion, the economy downturns. To me it seems really odd and I can’t find any reason behind this correlation or coincidence; I guess this is what they call in regression analysis a Spurious Correlation, where observation are correlated completely by chance. Building Completed Name of Building Location Hight Stories Economic Downturn 1908 Singer New York 612 ft. 48 Panic of 1907 1909 Metropolitan New York 700 ft. 50 Panic of 1907 1912 Woolworth New York 792 ft. 57 - 1929 40 Wall Street New York 927 ft. 71 Great Depression 1930 Chrysler New York 1,046 ft. 77 Great Depression 1931 Empire State New York 1,250 ft. 102 Great Depression 1972/3 World Trade Center New York 1,368 ft. 110 1070s stagflation 1974 Sears Tower Chicago 1,450 ft. 110 1070s stagflation 1997 Petronas Kuala Lumpur 1,483 ft. 88 East Asian 2009 Burj Dubai Dubai 2,684 ft. 167 Global Financial Crises 2012* Shanghai Shanghai 1,509 ft. 94 China? * I’m not sure whether Burj Dubai will actually be completed or not, so who knows maybe Shanghai building will be the tallest building by 2012.