This paper examines the comovement between prices and output for the G7
countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.) during the
postwar period. The comovement between prices and output is described using the
correlation coefficients of VAR forecast errors at different forecast horizons as proposed
in Den Haan (2000). This procedure has two important advantages over traditional
statistics used in the literature. First, the procedure considers a full set of statistics to
characterize the dynamics in an efficient manner. As pointed out by Hansen and
Heckman (1996) the observed dynamics of economic variables provide important
identifying information to evaluate dynamic macroeconomic models. Second, the
statistics are intuitive and easy to interpret. The correlation of detrended series is much
harder to interpret since one has to understand the dynamics of the trend.