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Nonlinearities in the Phillips Curve for the United States : Evidence Using Metropolitan Data

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  • Nathan R. Babb
  • Alan K. Detmeister

Abstract

With the unemployment rate in the United States currently below estimates of its natural rate we examine if the relationship between inflation and unemployment is nonlinear. Using aggregate data we are unable to reject a linear relationship. However, using metropolitan-level data we find the slope of the Phillips curve is roughly twice as large when unemployment is low compared to when it is high. Nevertheless the simple nonlinear Phillips curves used here suggest a core CPI inflation rate that is only slightly different than the linear version over the next couple of years.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathan R. Babb & Alan K. Detmeister, 2017. "Nonlinearities in the Phillips Curve for the United States : Evidence Using Metropolitan Data," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-070, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-70
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2017.070
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Ralf Fendel & Eliza M. Lis & Jan‐Christoph Rülke, 2011. "Do professional forecasters believe in the Phillips curve? evidence from the G7 countries," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 268-287, March.
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    10. Eliasson, Ann-Charlotte, 2001. "Is the Short-run Phillips Curve Nonlinear? Empirical Evidence for Australia, Sweden and the United States," Working Paper Series 124, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    11. Kumar, Anil & M. Orrenius, Pia, 2016. "A closer look at the Phillips curve using state-level data," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA), pages 84-102.
    12. Donayre, Luiggi & Panovska, Irina, 2016. "Nonlinearities in the U.S. wage Phillips curve," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 19-43.
    13. Albuquerque, Bruno & Baumann, Ursel, 2017. "Will US inflation awake from the dead? The role of slack and non-linearities in the Phillips curve," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 247-271.
    14. Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, 1995. "The Phillips curve is alive and well," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Mar, pages 41-56.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Inflation risks and inflation expectations
      by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets on 2019-02-25 13:49:59

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    Cited by:

    1. Saeed Zaman, 2019. "Cyclical versus Acyclical Inflation: A Deeper Dive," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue September.
    2. Fabio Busetti & Michele Caivano & Davide Delle Monache, 2021. "Domestic and Global Determinants of Inflation: Evidence from Expectile Regression," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(4), pages 982-1001, August.
    3. Michael McLeay & Silvana Tenreyro, 2020. "Optimal Inflation and the Identification of the Phillips Curve," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 199-255.
    4. Fabian Eser & Peter Karadi & Philip R. Lane & Laura Moretti & Chiara Osbat, 2020. "The Phillips Curve at the ECB," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(S1), pages 50-85, September.
    5. Richard K. Crump & Christopher J. Nekarda & Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, 2020. "Unemployment Rate Benchmarks," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2020-072, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Renaud St-Cyr, 2018. "Non-linéarité de la courbe de Phillips : un survol de la littérature," Staff Analytical Notes 2018-3, Bank of Canada.
    7. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel Wilson, 2018. "From NY to LA: A Look at the Wage Phillips Curve Using Cross-Geographical Data," 2018 Meeting Papers 1290, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Aginta, Harry, 2023. "Revisiting the Phillips curve for Indonesia: What can we learn from regional data?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Peter Hooper & Frederic S. Mishkin & Amir Sufi, 2019. "Prospects for Inflation in a High Pressure Economy: Is the Phillips Curve Dead or is It Just Hibernating?," NBER Working Papers 25792, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Andrew Keinsley & Sandeep Kumar Rangaraju, 2021. "The Nonlinear Unemployment-Inflation Relationship and the Factors That Define It," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 354-377, June.
    11. Hooper, Peter & Mishkin, Frederic S. & Sufi, Amir, 2020. "Prospects for inflation in a high pressure economy: Is the Phillips curve dead or is it just hibernating?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 26-62.
    12. Richard Ashley & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2019. "The Intermittent Phillips Curve: Finding a Stable (But Persistence-Dependent) Phillips Curve Model Specification," Working Papers 19-09R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 14 Feb 2023.
    13. Jonathan H. Wright, 2023. "Breaks in the Phillips Curve: Evidence from Panel Data," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-015, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2020. "Slack and Cyclically Sensitive Inflation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(S2), pages 393-428, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Core CPI Prices; Grid Searching; Metropolitan Statistical Area data; Phillips Curve;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

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