We challenge the widely held belief that New Keynesian models cannot predict an optimal positive inflation rate. In fact we find that even for the US economy, characterized by relatively small government size, optimal trend inflation is justified by the Phelps argument that the inflation tax...

We challenge the widely held belief that New-Keynesian models cannot predict optimal positive in‡ ations. We finnd that these are justified by the Phelps argument. This mainly happens because we also consider distortionary expects of public transfers. Our predictions are broadly consistent...

Recent developments in macroeconomics resurrect the view that wel- fare costs of inflation arise because the latter acts as a tax on money balances. Empirical contributions show that wage re-negotiations take place while expiring contracts are still in place. Bringing these seemingly unrelated...