International evidence on the new Keynesian Phillips curve using aggregate and disaggregate data

Abstract

We present a unique empirical analysis of the properties of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve using an international dataset of aggregate and disaggregate sectoral inflation. Our results from panel time-series estimation clearly indicate that sectoral heterogeneity has important consequences for aggregate inflation behaviour. Heterogeneity helps to explain the overesti- mation of inflation persistence and underestimation of the role of marginal costs in empirical investigations of the NKPC that use aggregate data. We find that combining disaggregate information with heterogeneous-consistent estimation techniques helps to reconcile, to a large extent, the NKPC with the data.