Supply, Factor Shares and Inflation Persistence: Re-examining Euro-area New-Keynesian Phillips Curves

Using euro-area data, we re-examine the empirical success of New-Keynesian Phillips curves (NKPCs). We re-estimate with a suitably specified optimizing supply side (which attempts to treat non-stationarity in factor income shares and mark-ups) that allows us to derive estimates of technology parameters, marginal costs and 'price gaps'. Our resulting estimates of the euro-area NKPCs are robust, provide reasonable estimates for fixed-price durations and discount rates and embody plausible dynamic properties. Our method for identifying the underlying determinants of NKPCs has general applicability to a wide set of countries as well as of use for sectoral studies. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.