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The new Keynesian Phillips curve and the cyclicality of marginal cost

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  • Mazumder, Sandeep

Abstract

Several authors argue that if the labor income share is used as the proxy for real marginal cost, then the New Keynesian Phillips Curve does a good job of approximating US inflation dynamics. However, this paper argues that the labor share is not an ideal measure of real marginal cost for two reasons: it is countercyclical whereas marginal cost is likely to be procyclical, and it assumes that labor can be costlessly adjusted at a fixed real wage rate. Relaxing this assumption to a more realistic one leads to a measure of marginal cost that does turn out to be procyclical, which when tested produces results that are contradictory to the entire underlying model of the NKPC. Indeed, this paper argues that having procyclical marginal cost precludes us from even having the correct coefficient signs in the NKPC, which highlights a major problem that exists in the model.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Macroeconomics.

Volume (Year): 32 (2010)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 747-765

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:32:y:2010:i:3:p:747-765
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622617

Keywords: Inflation Phillips curve Marginal cost;

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Cited by:

  1. Kajuth, Florian, 2012. "Identifying the Phillips curve through shifts in volatility," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 975-991.
  2. Sophocles Mavroeidis & Mikkel Plagborg-Møller & James H. Stock, . "Empirical Evidence on Inflation Expectations in the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," Working Paper 84656, Harvard University OpenScholar.
  3. Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2012. "Technology, Utilization and Inflation: What Drives the New Keynesian Phillips Curve?," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0912, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
  4. Robert G. Murphy, 2013. "Explaining Inflation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 823, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 18 Oct 2014.
  5. Laurence Ball & Sandeep Mazumder, 2011. "Inflation Dynamics and the Great Recession," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 337-405.
  6. Malikane, Christopher, 2013. "A New Keynesian Triangle Phillips Curve," MPRA Paper 43548, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Jaromir Baxa & Miroslav Plasil & Borek Vasicek, 2013. "Inflation and the Steeplechase Between Economic Activity Variables," Working Papers 2013/15, Czech National Bank, Research Department.
  8. Mazumder, Sandeep, 2011. "Cost-based Phillips Curve forecasts of inflation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 553-567.
  9. George J. Bratsiotis & Wayne A. Robinson, 2014. "Unit Total Costs: An Alternative Marginal Cost Proxy for Inflation Dynamics," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 192, Economics, The Univeristy of Manchester.
  10. Sandeep Mazumder, 2011. "The Long-Run Relationship Between Inflation and the Markup in the U.S," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(1), pages 473-484.
  11. Malikane, Christopher, 2012. "The microfoundations of the Keynesian wage-price spiral," MPRA Paper 42921, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 29 Nov 2012.

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