Long-run Phillips Curve and Disinfation Dynamics: Calvo vs. Rotemberg Price Setting

There is widespread agreement that the two most widely used pricing assumptions in the New-Keynesian literature, i.e., Calvo and Rotemberg price-setting mechanisms, deliver equivalent dynamics. We show that, instead, they entail a very di¤erent dynamics of adjustment after a disin?ation, once non linear simulations are employed. In the Calvo model disin?ation implies output gains, while in the Rotemberg model a disin?ation experiment implies output losses. We show that this is due to the di¤erent wedges created by the nominal rigidities in the two models: between output and hours in the Calvo model, while between output and consumption in the Rotemberg model. More- over, unlike the Calvo model, in the Rotemberg model real wage rigidi- ties cause a signi?cant output slump along the adjustment path, thus restoring a dynamics in line both with the conventional wisdom and the empirical evidence.