Characterizing Cross-Country Consumption Correlations

General equilibrium models of international fluctuations that assume complete asset markets predict that consumption will be highly correlated across countries, while the data display correlations that are rather low. It has become common to characterize this empirical regularity by noting that cross-country consumption correlations tend to be lower than corresponding output correlations. This note reconsiders that characterization and demonstrates that it is not particularly robust. It also documents a related regularity that is more pervasive: Consumption fluctuations are more highly correlated with domestic production than with world output. This provides an alternative standard for evaluating models of international fluctuations. © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology