Persistence of Nominal and Real Variables under Fixed and Floating Exchange Rates: Evidence from Greece, 1954-1992.

This paper examines the persistence of Greek nominal and real variables under the Bretton Woods system and the post-1975 floating rate system. Two non-parametric measures of persistence are employed. The first is Cochrane's variance ratio test, put forward in 1988, which allows the decomposition of a series into a random walk and a stationary component; and the second is the modified rescaled range statistic, put forward by Lo in 1991, which tests for the existence of long-term dependence. Empirical findings suggest that some of the variables under consideration exhibit a higher persistence under floating while for the rest of them the tests do not indicate any significant change. Copyright 1997 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Board of Trustees of the Bulletin of Economic Research