The hybrid New Keynesian Phillips curve has been criticized for lacking a micro-foundation. In this paper, an alternative purely forward-looking model of the Phillips curve is constructed on the basis of a micro-foundation of trend inflation. In addition, another source of output gaps other than...

Recently, it has been argued that trend inflation may be the solution to the puzzle of inflation persistence in the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC). However, incorporating trend inflation into the NKPC raises another serious problem—it lacks a microfoundation. The paper presents a...

The Friedman rule is strongly immune to most model modifications although it has not actually been observed. The Friedman rule implicitly assumes that a government is perfectly under the control of the representative household. This paper shows that, if a government is not perfectly under the...

Most explanations for the necessity of an independent central bank rely on the time-inconsistency model and therefore assume that governments are weak, foolish, or untruthful and tend to cheat people. The model in this paper indicates, however, that an independent central bank is not necessary...

This paper examines fiscal sustainability in an inflationary environment, particularly the interrelation between government debt and inflation. A model that explicitly incorporates the political utility/objective function of government is constructed. The government’s borrowing behavior and...