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The primary purpose of this thesis was to investigate if the modern Phillips Curve is valid for ASEAN five (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines) countries using a time-varying approach in the form of an ARMA-GARCH model. The method enables us to investigate how the inflation volatility reacts to economic shocks and if its history can predict the conditional variance of inflation. This study also aimed to investigate whether financial liberalisation affects the conditional variance of inflation. Moreover, we introduce a new parameter into the Phillips Curve. We propose the inclusion of a globally decomposed financial spillover index to see how it affects the inflation dynamics. Examining the period between 1996-2020, using monthly data. We find weak results, and the Phillips Curve was only valid for Singapore. Our findings also suggest that the inflation volatility is highly time-varying, indicating the suitability of the ARMA-GARCH framework. Significant coefficients in the model allow forecasting the conditional variance of inflation. The results support the idea that financial liberalisation to be volatility augmenting in some countries, suggesting a negative relationship between the degree of financial integration and received spillover effects. The globally decomposed spillover indices demonstrated weak results. For further investigations, we, therefore, propose the usage of regionally decomposed spillover indices.

We develop a New Keynesian (NK) model with endogenous price setting frequency. Whether a firm updates its price in a given period depends on an analysis of expected cost and benefits modelled by a discrete choice process. A firm decides to update the price when expected benefits outweigh expected cost and then resets the price optimally. As markups are countercyclical, the model predicts that prices are more flexible during expansions and less flexible during recessions. Our quantitative analysis shows that contrary to the standard NK model, the assumed price setting behaviour: is consistent with micro data on price setting frequency; gives rise to an accelerating Phillips curve that is steeper during expansions and flatter during recessions; explains shifts in the Phillips curve associated with different historical episodes without relying on implausible high cost-push shocks and nominal rigidities.

We model local inflation dynamics using global inflation and domestic slack motivated by a novel interpretation of the implications of the workhorse open-economy New Keynesian model. We evaluate the performance of inflation forecasts based on the single-equation forecasting specification implied by the model, exploiting the spatial pattern of international linkages underpinning global inflation. We find that incorporating cross-country interactions yields significantly more accurate forecasts of local inflation for a diverse group of 14 advanced countries (including the U.S.) than either a simple autoregressive model or a standard closed-economy Phillips curve-based forecasting model. We argue that modelling the temporal dimension—but not the cross-country spillovers—of inflation does limit a model’s explanatory power in-sample and its (pseudo) out-of-sample forecasting performance. Moreover, we also show that global inflation (without domestic slack) often contributes the most to achieve the gains on forecasting accuracy observed during our sample period (1984:Q1-2015:Q1)—this observation, according to theory, is crucially related to the flattening of the Phillips curve during this time period of increased globalization., NA

We estimate a New-Keynesian macro model accommodating regime-switching behavior in monetary policy and in macro shocks. Key to our estimation strategy is the use of survey-based expectations for inflation and output. We identify accommodating monetary policy before 1980, with activist monetary policy prevailing most but not 100% of the time thereafter. Systematic monetary policy switched to the activist regime in the 2000-2005 period through an aggressive lowering of interest rates. Discretionary policy spells became less frequent since 1985, but the Volcker period is identified as a discretionary period. Output shocks shift to the low volatility regime around 1985 whereas inflation shocks do so only around 1990, suggesting active monetary policy may have played role in anchoring inflation expectations. Shocks and policy regimes jointly drive the volatility of the macro variables. We provide new estimates of the onset and demise of the Great Moderation and the relative role played by macro-shocks and monetary policy.

We model local inflation dynamics using global inflation and domestic slack motivated by a novel interpretation of the implications of the workhorse open-economy New Keynesian model. We evaluate the performance of inflation forecasts based on the theoretically-consistent single-equation forecasting speci…cation implied by the model, exploiting the international linkages of inflation. In this on-line appendix, we provide a detailed description of the structure of the model underlying our analysis from first principles. Furthermore, we characterize the solution of the log-linearized model and derive analytically the key equilibrium relationships that we use for forecasting. We make note in particular of the role that the slope of the Phillips curve plays in the equilibrium solution of the model and for forecasting purposes. We also include additional results (robustness checks) that support and complement our in-sample analysis of the fit of the model and our pseudo out-of-sample forecasting evaluation exercises., NA

In the immediate wake of the Great Recession we didn't see the disinflation that most models predicted and, subsequently, we didn't see the inflation they predicted. We show that these puzzles disappear in a Vector Autoregressive model that properly accounts for domestic and global factors. Such a model reveals, among others, that domestic factors explain much of the inflation dynamics in the 2012-2014 euro area missing inflation episode. Consequently, economists and models that excessively focused on the global nature of inflation were liable to miss the contribution of deflationary domestic shocks during this episode.

This paper is related to a large recent literature studying the Phillips curve in sticky-price equilibrium models. It differs in allowing for the degree of price stickiness to be determined endogenously. A closed-form solution for short-term inflation is derived from the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with state-dependent pricing originally developed by Dotsey, King and Wolman. This generalised Phillips curve encompasses the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) based on Calvo-type price-setting as a special case. It describes current inflation as a function of lagged inflation, expected future inflation, and current and expected future real marginal costs. The paper demonstrates that inflation dynamics generated by the model for a broad class of time and state-dependent price-setting behaviours are well approximated by the popular hybrid NKPC (with one lag of inflation) in a low-inflation environment. This provides an explanation of why the hybrid NKPC performs well in describing inflation dynamics across industrial countries. It implies, however, that the reduced-form coefficients of the hybrid NKPC may not have a structural interpretation.

This dissertation discusses and analyzes recent issues in the empirics of inflation dynamics. Three different aspects of the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) are covered in this volume. In the first chapter, the empirical relevance of the NKPC is investigated for the German economy. The second chapter is devoted to analyzing a recently proposed extension of the NKPC: the cost channel. In Chapter 3, a direct measure of inflation expectations obtained and computed from a qualitative business survey is tested for its ability to forecast future inflation rates., Diese Dissertation stellt einen Beitrag zur Analyse und Diskussion neuerer Aspekte der empirischen Modellierung von Inflation dar. Die drei Kapitel dieser Arbeit setzen sich mit der Anwendung und Erweiterung ökonometrischer Methoden zur Beurteilung von theoretischen Inflationsmodellen auseinander, die in engem Zusammenhang mit der Neu-Keynesianischen Phillipskurve (NKPC) stehen. Im ersten Kapitel wird die NKPC für Deutschland empirisch untersucht. Im darauf folgenden Kapitel wird eine Erweiterung des Standardmodells betrachtet und getestet. Abschließend wird in Kapitel 3 untersucht, inwieweit qualitative Inflationseinschätzungen von Unternehmen für die Prognose zukünftiger Inflationsraten verwendet werden können.

We estimate a 'Hybrid New-Keynesian Phillips Curve' for Argentina between 1993 and 2007. We extend the model to a small open economy, considering separately the influence of nominal devaluation and foreign inflation on domestic prices. For the whole sample, we find that forward and backward-looking components are relevant although the backward-looking term weights more in determining inflation dynamics. We test for parameter stability and find a break-point in 2002 along with the regime change. In line with recent literature on trend inflation, when trend inflation increases, the influence of the output gap weakens and the curve becomes more forward-looking.

Recent papers have argued that one implication of globalization is that domestic inflation rates may have now become more a function of ``global", rather than domestic, economic conditions, as postulated by closed-economy Phillips curves. This paper aims to assess the empirical importance of global output in determining domestic inflation rates by estimating a structural model for a sample of G-7 economies. The model can capture the potential effects of global output fluctuations on both the aggregate supply and the aggregate demand relations in the economy and it is estimated using full-information Bayesian methods. The empirical results reveal a significant effect of global output on aggregate demand in most countries. Through this channel, global economic conditions can indirectly affect inflation. The results, instead, do not seem to provide evidence in favor of altering domestic Phillips curves to include global slack as an additional driving variable for inflation.

This paper employs a structural model to estimate whether global output gap has become an important determinant of U.S. inflation dynamics. The results provide support for the relevance of global slack as a determinant of U.S. inflation after 1985. The role of domestic output gap, instead, seems to have diminished over time.

The conventional wisdom that inflation and unemployment are unrelated in the long-run implies the compartmentalisation of macroeconomics. While one branch of the literature models inflation dynamics and estimates the unemployment rate compatible with inflation stability, another one determines the real economic factors that drive the natural rate of unemployment. In the context of the new Phillips curve (NPC), we show that frictional growth, i.e. the interplay between lags and growth, generates an inflation-unemployment tradeoff in the long-run. We thus argue that a holistic framework, like the chain reaction theory (CRT), should be used to jointly explain the evolution of inflation and unemployment. A further attraction of the CRT approach is that it provides a synthesis of the traditional structural macroeconometric models and the (structural) vector autoregressions (VARs)

This paper evaluates the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) and its hybrid variant within a limited information framework for Germany. The main interest rests on the average frequency of price re-optimization of firms. We use the labor income share as the driving variable and consider a source of real rigidity by allowing for a fixed firm-specific capital stock. A GMM estimation strategy is employed as well as an identification robust method that is based upon the Anderson-Rubin statistic. We find out that the German Phillips Curve is purely forward looking. Moreover, our point estimates are consistent with the view that firms re-optimize prices every two to three quarters. While these estimates seem plausible from an economic point of view, the uncertainties around these estimates are very large and also consistent with perfect nominal price rigidity where firms never re-optimize prices. This analysis also offers some explanations why previous results for the German NKPC based on GMM differ considerably. First, standard GMM results are very sensitive to the way how orthogonality conditions are formulated. Additionally, model misspecifications may be left undetected by conventional J tests. Taken together, this analysis points out the need for identification robust methods to get reliable estimates for the NKPC.

In this paper we model the role of open-economy effects within a New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) via the inclusion of intermediate imports in firms' production technology. Using this framework we provide evidence on two questions: first, does the inclusion of import prices help explain post-war inflation dynamics in the United Kingdom , United States and Japan; and second, has the influence of import prices in firms' costs become greater over the more recent period since the mid-1980s. Overall, our results suggest that import prices do help explain movements in inflation; in particular, NKPC models that allow for import prices to enter into firms' costs outperform closed-economy models in sample. However, our results suggest that the influence of import prices has generally remained constant across our sample period, with perhaps only the United Kingdom providing some evidence that import prices have become more important in firms' marginal costs.

This paper argues that there is a nonzero inflation-unemployment tradeoff in the long-run due to frictional growth, a phenomenon that encapsulates the interplay of nominal staggering and money growth. The existence of a downward-sloping long-run Phillips curve suggests the development of a holistic framework that can jointly explain the evolution of inflation and unemployment. Hence, we estimate an interactive dynamics model for the US that includes wage-price setting and labour market equations. We then evaluate the inflation-unemployment tradeoff and assess the impact of productivity, money growth, budget deficit, and trade deficit on the unemployment and inflation trajectories during the nineties.

In this paper we set out a test of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) based on Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models. The proposed technique does not rely on the Anderson and Moore (1985) method and can be implemented with any existing econometric software. The idea is to use a VAR involving the inflation rate and the forcing variable(s) as the expectation generating system and find the restrictions that nest the NKPC within the VAR. The model can be estimated and tested through maximum likelihood methods. We show that the presence of feedbacks from the inflation rate to the forcing variable(s) can affect solution properties of the NKPC; when feedbacks are detected the VAR should be regarded as the final form solution of a more general structural model. Possible non-stationary in the variables can be easily taken into account within our framework. Empirical results point that the standard "hybrid" versions of the NKPC are far from being a good first approximation to the dynamics of inflation in the Euro area.

In this paper, we use identification-robust methods to assess the empirical adequacy of a New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) equation. We focus on the Gali and Gertler’s (1999) specification, on both U.S. and Canadian data. Two variants of the model are studied: one based on a rational expectations assumption, and a modification to the latter which consists in using survey data on inflation expectations. The results based on these two specifications exhibit sharp differences concerning: (i) identification difficulties, (ii) backward-looking behavior, and (ii) the frequency of price adjustments. Overall, we find that there is some support for the hybrid NKPC for the U.S., whereas the model is not suited to Canada. Our findings underscore the need for employing identification robust inference methods in the estimation of expectations-based dynamic macroeconomic relations.

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library. Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla. Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler. This paper examines empirical performance of three different Phillips curve specifications in the euro area. Instead of imposing rational expectations, direct measures, ie OECD forecasts, are used to proxy for economic agents' inflation expectations. Real marginal costs are measured in three different ways. The results suggest that with directly measured expectations the estimated New Classical Phillips curve has satisfactory statistical properties. Moreover, the driving variable enters the estimated purely forward-looking New Keynesian Phillips curve with a correct sign, but it is definitely outperformed by the New Classical and the Hybrid Phillips curve. We interpret our results as indicating that the European inflation process is not purely forward-looking, so that inflation cannot instantaneously adjust to new information. Consequently, even allowing for possible non-rationality in expectations, a lagged inflation term enters the New Keynesian Phillips curve for the European inflation dynamics. The inflation process seems to have become more forward-looking in the recent years of low and stable inflation. Furthermore, in the New Keynesian Phillips curve relationship the output gap turns out to be at least as good a proxy for real marginal costs as the labour income share.

This paper investigates the predictions of a simple optimizing model of nominal price rigidity for the aggregate price level and the dynamics of inflation. I compare the model's predictions with those of a perfectly competitive, flexible price 'benchmark' model (corresponding to the model of pricing assumed in standard real business cycle models), and evaluate how much the introduction of nominal rigidities improves the model's fit with the data. The model's predictions are derived using only the firms optimal pricing problem; taken as given the path of nominal labor compensation, labor productivity and output, I determine the implied path of prices predicted by the model. Because prices are not a stationary series, I present my results in terms of the predicted path of the price/unit labor cost ratio, where the parameters characterizing such paths are chosen to maximize the fit with the data. I find that while the evolution of prices relative to unit labor costs is quite different from what would be predicted by the flexible-price 'benchmark' model, a simple model of nominal price rigidity delivers an extremely close approximation both of the price/unit labor cost ratio and of the inflation series, even under a very simple approach to the measurement of marginal costs.