摘要:We examine the ability of the New Keynesian Phillips curve to explain U.S.
inflation dynamics when inflation forecasts (from the Federal Reserve’s
Greenbook and the Survey of Professional Forecasters) are used as a proxy for
inflation expectations. The New Keynesian Phillips curve is estimated against
the alternative of the hybrid Phillips curve, which allows for a
backward-looking component in the price-setting behavior in the economy. The
results are compared with those obtained using actual data on future inflation
as conventionally employed in empirical work under the assumption of rational
expectations. The empirical evidence provides, in contrast to most of the
relevant literature, considerable support for the standard forward-looking New
Keynesian Phillips curve when inflation expectations are measured using
inflation forecasts that are observable in real time. In this case,
lagged-inflation terms become insignificant in the hybrid specification. The
evidence in favor of the New Keynesian Phillips curve becomes even stronger when
real-time data on lagged inflation are used instead of the final inflation data
used in standard specifications. Our work is closely related to the work of
Roberts (1997), who used survey measures of inflation expectations in an
empirical inflation model and found evidence that it is less-than-perfectly
rational expectations and not the underlying structure of the economy that
account for the presence of lagged inflation in empirical estimates of the New
Keynesian model.