Aggregating Phillips Curves

59 Pages Posted: 20 May 2008

See all articles by Jean M. Imbs

Jean M. Imbs

Paris School of Economics (PSE); NYU Abu Dhabi; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Eric Jondeau

University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne); Swiss Finance Institute; Swiss Finance Institute

Florian Pelgrin

EDHEC Business School; EDHEC Business School

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 2007

Abstract

The New Keynesian Phillips Curve is at the centre of two raging empirical debates. First, how can purely forward looking pricing account for the observed persistence in aggregate inflation. Second, price-setting responds to movements in marginal costs, which should therefore be the driving force to observed inflation dynamics. This is not always the case in typical estimations. In this paper, we show how heterogeneity in pricing behaviour is relevant to both questions. We detail the conditions under which imposing homogeneity results in overestimating a backward-looking component in (aggregate) inflation, and underestimating the importance of (aggregate) marginal costs for (aggregate) inflation. We provide intuition for the direction of these biases, and verify them in French data with information on prices and marginal costs at the industry level. We show that the apparent discrepancy in the estimated duration of nominal rigidities, as implied from aggregate or microeconomic data, can be fully attributable to a heterogeneity bias.

Keywords: Heterogeneity, inflation persistence, marginal costs, New Keynesian Phillips Curve, nominal rigidities

JEL Classification: C10, C22, E31, E52

Suggested Citation

Imbs, Jean M. and Imbs, Jean M. and Jondeau, Eric and Pelgrin, Florian, Aggregating Phillips Curves (March 2007). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP6184, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1133828

Jean M. Imbs (Contact Author)

Paris School of Economics (PSE) ( email )

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NYU Abu Dhabi ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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Eric Jondeau

University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne) ( email )

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+41 21 692 33 49 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://people.unil.ch/ericjondeau/

Swiss Finance Institute ( email )

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+41 21 692 33 49 (Phone)

Swiss Finance Institute

c/o University of Geneva
40, Bd du Pont-d'Arve
CH-1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland

Florian Pelgrin

EDHEC Business School ( email )

France
Switzerland

EDHEC Business School ( email )

58 rue du Port
Lille, 59046
France

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