STOCHASTIC DEPRECIATION AND THE BUSINESS-CYCLE

We study a version of the neoclassical growth model in which shocks to both aggregate productivity and the depreciation of capital generate fluctuations around the steady-state growth path. Depreciation shocks induce an inverse comovement between average labor productivity and hours worked. When the model is calibrated to U.S. data, it generates a correlation between productivity and hours which is significantly closer to the observed value than that of standard real business cycle models. Furthermore, the addition of depreciation shocks does not cause a deterioration of the predictions of the model concerning other comovements.