SOME NEW STYLIZED FACTS OF FLOATING EXCHANGE-RATES

This paper re-examines real exchange rate behavior of OECD currencies under the current float using the more extensive dataset that an addit ional decade's worth of experience has made available. What emerges is a new set of stylized facts, which suggest that the problems of the c urrent float were not, as commonly believed, generic to that system bu t in fact rather specific, being largely confined to one sub-period - the early and mid-1980s - and one currency - the US dollar. This dolla r behavior ranks as one of the important puzzles of the past 25 years. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.