This paper lays out a simple open economy macromodel based on the recent literature on imperfect competition and equilibrium unemployment. It is shown that the NAIRU is not a clearcut concept in the open economy framework. Furthermore, it is argued that the self-correcting mechanisms in the...

This paper reports estimates of a reduced form relationship explaining inflation in terms of the output gap and import price inflation for most OECD countries. Results are reported both for single equation estimation on a country-by-country basis and using a system estimation technique in order...

The behaviour of unemployment in the UK is of particular interest in the light of the far reaching programme of reforms introduced since 1980. The paper first outlines the main theoretical ideas behind the concept of equilibrium unemployment, drawing a distinction between the factors which may...

This note gives a brief survey of main theoretical and empirical issues with respect to the NAIRU concept. According to modern labour market literature NAIRU is defined as the rate of unemployment at which inflation stabilises in the absence of any wage-price surprises. Conventional thinking...

Italy has been one of the few industrial countries resorting to incomes policy in the current decade. Many Italian observers have attributed to this policy the remarkable slowdown in wage and price inflation. However, no apparent progress has been made concerning labour market unbalances, as the...

We develop a tractable sticky price model in which the fraction of price changes evolves endogenously over time and, consistent with the evidence, increases with inflation. Because we assume that firms sell multiple products and choose how many, but not which, prices to adjust in any given...

This article has two aims: the first one is to present a formal model of the monetary policy identified generally as "inflation targeting policy", an instrument of intervention of the central bank, through the short run nominal interest rate. The second aim is to discuss and criticize the...