Domestic and global output gaps as inflation drivers: What does the Phillips curve tell?

We study how domestic and global output gaps affect CPI inflation. We use a New-Keynesian Phillips curve framework which controls for non-linear exchange rate movements for a panel of 26 advanced and 22 emerging economies covering the 1994Q1−2017Q4 period. We find that both global and domestic output gaps are significant drivers of inflation both in the pre-crisis (1994–2008) and post-crisis (2008–2017) periods. Furthermore, after the crisis, in advanced economies the effect of the domestic output gap declines, while in emerging economies the effect of the global output gap declines. Our results suggest that emerging and advanced economies have become more similar to each other in terms of output gaps as inflation drivers. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in identifying the impact of global and domestic output gaps on inflation.     

Prospects for inflation in a high pressure economy: Is the Phillips curve dead or is it just hibernating?

As the US labor market has tightened beyond full employment with relatively little evidence of inflation pressure, observers are increasingly inclined to declare the demise of the Phillips curve, that is, the flattening of its slope to zero. This paper reviews a substantial range of empirical evidence on this point, by assessing the performance of the conventional expectations-augmented Phillips curve for both prices and wages, based on both historical macro or national level data and panel data for states and MSAs (cities). National data going back to the 1950s and 60s yield strong evidence of negative slopes and significant nonlinearity in those slopes, with slopes much steeper in tight labor markets than in easy labor markets. This evidence of both slope and nonlinearity weakens dramatically based on macro data since the 1980s for the price Phillips curve, but not the wage Phillips curve. However, the endogeneity of monetary policy and the lack of variation of the unemployment gap, which has few episodes of being substantially below zero in this sample period, makes the price Phillips curve estimates from this period less reliable. At the same time, state level and MSA level data since the 1980s yield significant evidence of both negative slope and nonlinearity in the Phillips curve. The difference between national and city/state results in recent decades can be explained by the success that monetary policy has had in quelling inflation and anchoring inflation expectations since the 1980s. We also review the experience of the 1960s, the last time inflation expectations became unanchored, and observe both parallels and differences with today. Our analysis suggests that reports of the death of the Phillips curve may be greatly exaggerated.     

The long-run Phillips curve and non-stationary inflation

Modern theories of inflation incorporate a vertical long-run Phillips curve and are usually estimated using techniques that ignore the non-stationary behaviour of inflation. Consequently, the estimates obtained are imprecise and unable to test the veracity of a vertical long-run Phillips curve. We estimate a Phillips curve model taking into account the non-stationary properties in inflation and identify a small but significant positive relationship between inflation and unemployment. The results also provide some evidence that the trade-off between inflation and the rate of unemployment in the short-run worsens as the mean rate of inflation increases.     

Determinants of fiscal multipliers revisited

We generalize a simple New Keynesian model and show that a flattening of the Phillips curve reduces the size of fiscal multipliers at the zero lower bound (ZLB) on the nominal interest rate. The factors behind the flatting are consistent with micro- and macroeconomic empirical evidence: it is a result of, not a higher level of price rigidity, but an increase in the degree of strategic complementarity in price-setting – invoked by the assumption of a specific instead of an economy-wide labour market, and decreasing instead of constant-returns-to-scale. In normal times, the efficacy of fiscal policy and resulting multipliers tends to be small because negative wealth effects crowd out consumption, and because monetary policy endogenously reacts to fiscally-driven increases in inflation and output by raising rates, offsetting part of the stimulus. In times of a binding ZLB and a fixed nominal rate, an increase in (expected) inflation instead lowers the real rate, leading to larger fiscal multipliers. Conditional on being in a ZLB-environment, under a flatter Phillips curve, increases in expected inflation are lower, so that fiscal multipliers at the ZLB tend to be lower. Finally, we also discuss the role of solution methods in determining the size of fiscal multipliers.     

Chronic Deflation in Japan

Japan has suffered from a long‐lasting but mild deflation since the latter half of the 1990s. Estimates of a standard Phillips curve indicate that a decline in inflation expectations, the negative output gap, and other factors such as a decline in import prices and a higher exchange rate all account for some of this development. These factors, in turn, reflect various underlying structural features of the Japanese economy. This paper examines a long list of these structural features that may explain Japan's chronic deflation, including the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate, public attitudes toward the price level, central bank communication, weaker growth expectations coupled with declining potential growth or the lower natural rate of interest, risk‐averse banking behavior, deregulation, and the rise of emerging economies.     

Unemployment–inflation trade-offs in OECD countries

Inflation and unemployment reduce welfare of individuals and should be as low as possible in any economy. Cointegration and Granger causality tests suggest that there are long run relations between these two variables among the OECD economies. While rates of unemployment vary significantly among these economies, rates of inflation have stabilised at lower rates as a result of inflation targeting policies adopted in them during the last two decades. The Phillips curve phenomena are still empirically significant for 28 out of 35 of these OECD economies in country specific regressions; in fixed and random effect panel data models and in a panel VAR model for 1990:1 to 2014:4. Country specific supply curves and Okun curves are consistent to thin Phillips curve relations. Leftward shifts in the Beveridge and Phillips curves require labour market reforms balancing between job creations and destructions. Complementing macro stimulations by microeconomic structural and institutional reforms can bring efficiency in bargaining for wages and employment among firms and workers to make unemployment–inflation trade-offs more significant and relevant in these economies.     

The shape of the Phillips curve: the case of Indonesia

It is recognized that the effectiveness of monetary policy in the control of inflation depends critically on the relationship between inflation and the output gap. During booms, inflation is highly sensitive to monetary influences, but during recessions this influence is considerably muted. However, econometric investigation of this phenomenon has mostly focussed on the developed economies. In this article, the shape of the Phillips curve is investigated for Indonesia. Evidence is found of significant nonlinearities in the inflation–output relationship for Indonesia and it is argued that this relationship is best modelled by the capacity-constraint (L-shape) model.     

Is the slope of the Phillips curve time-varying? Evidence from unobserved components models

This paper formally tests for time variation in the slope of the Phillips curve using a variety of measures of inflation expectations and real economic slack. We find that time variation in the slope of the Phillips curve depends on the measure of inflation expectations rather than the measure of real economic slack. We find strong evidence in support of the time-varying slopes of the Phillips curve with different measures of inflation expectations. Thus, we conclude that the slope of the Phillips curve is time-varying.     

Is the US Phillips curve stable? Evidence from Bayesian vector autoregressions*

It has been claimed that the fall in US inflation during the Great Recession was surprisingly small. One possible explanation for this is that the Phillips curve is unstable and that its slope was lower around the Great Recession. We investigate the importance of time-varying parameters using Bayesian vector autoregressions for inflation and unemployment. We find support for time variation in the inflation equation and an unstable Phillips curve that was somewhat flatter between 2005 and 2013. However, conditional forecasts mostly suggest that inflation was not unexpectedly high around the Great Recession, which puts the claim of a “missing disinflation” into question.     

Globalization and inflation: A threshold investigation

We use a threshold methodology to investigate the importance of non-linear effects in the analysis of the inflation globalization hypothesis. Accounting for potential non-linearities in the Phillips Curve, we show that trade openness is not rejected as a threshold variable for the effects of domestic and foreign slack on inflation in many advanced economies, and we find a switch of the output gap slopes from one regime to the other that is consistent with the key predictions of the inflation globalization hypothesis. For some countries the threshold Phillips Curve model also leads to improvements in out-of-sample forecast over the linear Phillips models, especially at longer horizons. Contrary to most of the previous literature which ignores such non-linearities, our new approach provides some interesting empirical evidence supportive of the effect globalization has on a country’s inflation dynamics.     

The economics of the Phillips curve: Formation of inflation expectations versus incorporation of inflation expectations

This paper examines the theory of the Phillips curve, focusing on the distinction between “formation” of inflation expectations and “incorporation” of inflation expectations. Phillips curve theory has largely focused on the former. Explaining the Phillips curve by reference to expectation formation keeps Phillips curve theory in the policy orbit of natural rate thinking where there is no welfare justification for higher inflation even if there is a permanent inflation–unemployment trade-off. Explaining the Phillips curve by reference to incorporation of inflation expectations breaks that orbit and provides a welfare economics rationale for Keynesian activist policies that reduce unemployment at the cost of higher inflation.     

The stability of the Turkish Phillips curve and alternative regime shifting models

This article, presents empirical evidence supporting instability of the Phillips curve in Turkey. We employ the multiple structural break models and the Markov-switching models and then evaluate the performance of the two models. The data pertain to the monthly inflation rate in Turkey for the period of 1987 to 2004. The results show that the Turkish Phillips curve is not linear. There exists no evidence on the asymmetry in the inflation response to output gap. The persistence of inflation is found to be much lower than in linear models. After 2001, slight decline in persistence of inflation is observed. There exits weaker support for the Phillips curve for the periods where the policymakers attempt to take the advantage of the tradeoff between output and inflation relationship.     

Asymmetric effects in the Polish monetary policy rule

In this paper we investigate whether the reaction function of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) is asymmetric according to the level of inflation gap and the level of output gap. Moreover, we test whether these asymmetries might possibly stem from nonlinearities in the Phillips curve. Threshold models are applied and two cases of unknown and known threshold values are investigated. Our results show that the Polish central bank responds more strongly to the level inflation when the level of inflation is relatively high. We find very weak evidence that the level of inflation reacts more strongly to the output gap when the output gap is relatively high. Thus, the asymmetries in the monetary policy rule seem to indicate asymmetric preferences of the central bank.     

The new Keynesian Phillips curve: endogeneity and misspecification

The wrong or insignificant sign of the forcing variable in the new Keynesian Phillips curve estimations may be a result of the endogeneity of the labour share and misspecification of real marginal cost in the baseline model. We address the misspecification of real marginal cost by formulating a broad measure that features the labour share, output gap and supply shock variables. The endogeneity of the labour share is addressed by using an appropriate lag of the labour share in the Phillips curve. Reduced-form evidence from five developed and five emerging market economies support the empirical validity of the NKPC.     

Inflation and output growth uncertainty in individual survey expectations

This paper studies uncertainty using the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters’ data. Both inflation and real GDP growth forecasts at the micro level are considered. Our analysis indicates that individual inflation uncertainty is closely related to output growth uncertainty. Individual forecasters seem to behave according to an uncertainty-augmented hybrid specification of the New Keynesian Phillips curve. We also find evidence that inflation uncertainty has a negative impact on economic activity by lowering output growth, boosting inflation and reducing the price-sensitiveness of aggregate supply.     

The optimal neglect of inflation: An alternative interpretation of UK monetary policy during the “Great Moderation”

This paper argues that UK monetary policymakers did not respond to the inflation rate during most of the “Great Moderation” that ran from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. We derive a generalisation of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in which inflation is a non-linear function of the output gap and show that the optimal response of the policy rule to inflation depends on the slope of the Phillips curve; if this is flat, manipulation of aggregate demand through monetary policy does not affect inflation and so policymakers cannot affect inflation. We estimate the monetary policy rules implied by a variety of alternative Phillips curves; our preferred model is based on a Phillips curve that is flat when output is close to equilibrium. We find that policy rates do not respond to inflation when the output gap is small, a situation that characterised most of the “Great Moderation” period.     

The phillips curve and US macroeconomic performance during the 1990s

This paper identifies two competing accounts of recent US macroeconomic performance, both of which are capable of explaining the concurrence of low unemployment and low inflation experienced by the US after 1995. Econometric evidence provides partial support for both views, establishing that while there has been no change in the position of the long run Phillips curve in the US during the 1990s, this long run Phillips curve is likely not vertical. These results suggest that recent US macroeconomic performance is not sustainable and that US policy makers ultimately face a choice between higher unemployment or higher inflation in the long run.     

核心通货膨胀:理论模型与经验分析

现有的核心通货膨胀计算方法假设各种商品和服务的价格变化可以表示为核心通货膨胀与异质性相对价格变化之和,然而这种价格变化的分解方式既缺乏理论基础又违背经济直觉。本文将经典的新凯恩斯模型推广到多部门情形,证明了多部门新凯恩斯菲利普斯曲线,提出了各部门商品价格变化的理论分解公式。以这个分解公式为理论基础,本文提出了估计核心通货膨胀的计量经济模型及其两阶段估计方法,给出了根据稳态权重估计核心通货膨胀的简便方法,估计出了我国的核心通货膨胀。有效性检验表明,根据两阶段估计方法和基于稳态权重的估计方法得到的核心通货膨胀都是有效的核心通货膨胀度量。     

Comparing alternative Phillips curve specifications: European results with survey-based expectations

This article examines inflation dynamics in Europe. Econometric specification tests with pooled European data are used to compare the empirical performance of the New Classical, New Keynesian and Hybrid specifications of the Phillips curve. Instead of imposing any specific form of expectations formation, direct measures, i.e. Consensus Economics survey data are used to proxy economic agents’ inflation expectations. According to the results, the New Classical Phillips curve has satisfactory statistical properties. Moreover, the purely forward-looking New Keynesian Phillips curve is clearly outperformed by the New Classical and Hybrid Phillips curves. We interpret our results as indicating that the European inflation process is not purely forward looking and inflation cannot instantaneously adjust to changes in expectations. Consequently, even allowing for possible nonrationality in expectations results in a lagged inflation term entering the New Keynesian Phillips curve for inflation dynamics in Europe.     

Wages and prices in Europe before and after the onset of the Monetary Union

This paper investigates possible structural changes induced by the Euro on the relations among wages, prices and unemployment for the five major European economies. The dynamic adjustment and the level relations are found to be different across subperiods as well as across countries. During the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) period, there is evidence of a conventionally-sloped Phillips Curve for the four economies within the EMU, with a higher degree of homogeneity with respect to the pre-EMU period; the UK presents instead a positively-sloped Phillips Curve in the EMU period. In this latter period, deviations from reference values are found to influence unemployment for all countries, including the UK. Only for Germany and Spain, instead, we find evidence that deviations from reference values influence inflation dynamics.