Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Reappraisal Of The Inflation-Unemployment Tradeoff, Marika Karanassou, Hector Sala, Dennis Snower

Dennis Snower

This paper offers a reappraisal of the inflation-unemployment tradeoff, based on "frictional growth", describing the interplay between nominal frictions and money growth. Whe the money supply growth in the presence of price inertia (due to staggered wage contracts with time discounting), the price adjustments to each successive change in the money supply are never able to work themselves out fully. In this context, temporary nominal rigidities let monetary policy have permanent real effects. Although our theory contains no money illusion, no permanent nominal rigidities, and no departure from rational expectations, there is a long-run inflation-unemployment tradeoff. Our empirical analysis suggests …