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Journal Article
Return of the Original Phillips Curve
The link between changes in U.S. inflation and the output gap has weakened in recent decades. Over the same time, a positive link between the level of inflation and the output gap has emerged, reminiscent of the original 1958 version of the Phillips curve. This development is important because it indicates that structural changes in the economy have not eliminated the inflationary pressure of gap variables. Improved anchoring of people’s expectations for inflation, which makes the expected inflation term in the Phillips curve more stable, can account for both observations.
Working Paper
From Volcker to the Pandemic Era: History Dependent Anchoring of Short-Run Expected Inflation
We develop an endogenous measure of anchoring for short-run expected inflation in a New Keynesian model with full-information rational expectations. Specifically, we allow the fraction of non-reoptimizing firms that index prices to the inflation target, rather than lagged inflation, to depend on observed inflation persistence. The model with endogenous indexation generates a scatter plot of persistence and volatility measures for inflation that approximates the convex pattern observed in quarterly U.S. data. With endogenous indexation, the equilibrium anchoring measure exhibits history ...