Calvo vs. Rotemberg in a Trend Inflation World: An Empirical Investigation

This paper estimates and compares New-Keynesian DSGE monetary models of the business cycle derived under two different pricing schemes - Calvo (1983) and Rotemberg (1982) - under a positive trend inflation rate. Our empirical findings (i) support trend inflation as an empirically relevant feature of the U.S. great moderation; (ii) provide evidence in favor of the statistical superiority of the Calvo setting; (iii) support the absence of price indexation under the Calvo mechanism only. The superiority of the Calvo model (against Rotemberg) is due to the restrictions imposed by such a pricing scheme on the aggregate demand equation. The determinacy regions implied by the two estimated models indicate relevant differences in the implementable simple policy rules.