New Keynesian Economics and the Phillips Curve

Abstract

Models with sticky prices are an important part of New Keynesian economics. The author shows that several of the New Keynesian models imply a formulation that is similar to the expectations-augmented Phillips curve of Milton Friedman and Edmund Phelps. He then presents new estimates of the New Keynesian Phillips curve. The author uses two proxies for price expectations: survey-based measures and an econometric-based measure originally developed by Bennett McCallum (1976). Overall, the results are consistent with the model but the survey-based results are more precise, suggesting that the surveys may be better measures of actual expectations. Copyright 1995 by Ohio State University Press.