Differences in global economic development and skyscrapers development: A quantitative investigation of the relationship between skyscrapers and the economic cycle

Buildings taller than 200 meters have been built since 1909, and since then, over 1500 have been built. Their development has followed unique trends in different areas of the world, with sudden surges followed by down periods. The property industry is a supplier of capital goods, so demand for property is inevitably linked to the demand for investment goods in the economy as a whole. It supplies space and is affected by the economic factors that cause more or less demand. From a global perspective, we can expect skyscrapers development to follow finance to some degree, especially by clustering most projects in locations with high accessibility and low cost of capital, targeted by foreign investment and with positive expectations of financial growth. The symbolism of tall buildings has stimulated height competitions throughout the world, while their iconicity has attracted different kind of users. New technologies have allowed to reach new heights as well as making prohibitive applications feasible through research and development. As time evolves, new systems and applications are made available to reach height easier and cheaper. Over 70% of the world supply of skyscrapers have been built in the past 10 years, in an ever-growing pattern. In previous research, it has been suggested that there is a strong interrelationship between business cycles and skyscrapers development, yet this has never been measured at global level. This is the gap in existing knowledge this research addresses