Previous studies have stressed that in ation dynamics exhibit a substantial disper- sion across sectors. Using US producer price data, we present evidence that sectoral in ation persistence is negatively correlated with market concentration, which is diffi- cult to reconcile with the prediction...

Previous studies have stressed that inflation dynamics exhibit a substantial dispersion across sectors. Using US producer price data, we present evidence that sectoral inflation persistence is negatively correlated with market concentration, which is difficult to reconcile with the prediction of...

This paper investigates the sources of the widely noticed reduction in the volatility of American business cycles since the mid 1980s. Our analysis of reduced volatility emphasizes the sharp decline in the standard deviation of changes in real GDP, of the output gap, and of the inflation rate....

The paper shows how increases in the inflation rate can cause the output growth rate to decrease by a lessor amount as the inflation rate rises. This is the so-called non-linearity in the inflation-growth effect. Our explanation helps show how model-based estimates of the inflation-growth effect...

Models in which firms use rules of thumb or partial indexing in their price setting have become prominent in the recent monetary policy literature. The extent to which these firms adjust their prices to lagged inflation has been taken as fixed. We consider the implications of firms choosing the...

Models in which firms use rules of thumb or partial indexing in their price setting have become prominent in the recent monetary policy literature. The extent to which these firms adjust their prices to lagged inflation has been taken as fixed. We consider the implications of firms choosing the...

Models in which pricing decisions depend on indexing or rule of thumb behaviour have become prominent in the monetary policy literature and tend to match macroeconomic data well given their prediction of inflation persistence. The extent to which firms index their prices to past inflation has...

We analyze the microfoundations of the Phillips curve, a key relationship in general macroeconomics and models of monetary policy in particular. The form in current widespread use includes both forward looking expected inflation and lagged inflation. The presence of lagged inflation is necessary...

We connect two major strands of the recent monetary policy literature, i) the search for well microfounded optimising models consistent with macroeconomic data, especially persistence in inflation, and ii) the wealth of newly available microeconomic data on price changing behaviour from the...

Many recent studies in macroeconomics have focused on the estimation of DSGE models using a system of loglinear approximations to the models' nonlinear equilibrium conditions. The term macroeconometric equivalence encapsulates the idea that estimates using aggregate data based on first-order...