A brief introduction to the bosonization method for interacting one-dimensional fermion systems is given. Using these results, the long-distance decay of correlation functions in the one-dimensional Hubbard model is determined exactly for arbitrary bandfilling and correlation strength, using the exact solution of Lieb and Wu. For infinite U the results are generalized to the case of nonzero nearest-neighbour interaction. The behaviour of thermodynamic quantities, of the frequency-dependent conductivity, and of the thermopower is also discussed, in particular in the proximity of the metal-insulator transitions occurring for half- and quarter-filling. The one-dimensional Luttinger liquid is shown to be unstable in the presence of interchain hopping. The results for the metal-insulator transition are compared with other scenarios developed in higher dimensions.