Detrending and Output Growth-Rate Distributions

We investigate the statistical properties of output growth-rate distributions. Recent empirical contributions indicate that growth rates follow a Laplace distribution at different levels of aggregation, and, following this, we test whether output growth rates can be so approximated. We also ask whether our findings are robust to alternative means for detrending output series. Our analysis uses the Subbotin family of densities, which encompasses the Laplace and Gaussian distributions. We examine the distribution of output growth rates in the U. S. and in other developed countries. We find that the means used for detrending does affect the distribution of output growth rates. First-differenced growth rates follow a Laplace distribution, whereas the distributions of HP and bandpass-filtered growth rates have tails thinner than the Laplace