BUSINESS CYCLES, STYLIZED FACTS, AND THE EXCHANGE-RATE REGIME - EVIDENCE FROM THE UNITED-STATES

This paper investigates the robustness of central maroeconomic 'stylized facts' to (i) commonly-employed detrending methods, and (ii) the exchange rate regime. We find that the stylized facts are not at all robust to the choice of detrnding method, with the most important variations occurring in the cyclic behavior of hours and productivity. With respect to the exchange rate regime, the most surprising find is that the correlation between GNP, on the one hand, and consumption, investment, hours, exports, and imports on the other all, all rose in the post-1973 period. This reinforces Baxter and Stockman's (1989) finding that business cycles in the post-1973 period have been more nation-specific than in the prior Bretton-Woods era. © 1991.