February 2001

How Well Does the New Keynesian Sticky-Price Model Fit the Data?

John M. Roberts

Abstract:

The New Keynesian sticky-price model has become increasingly popular for monetary-policy analysis. However, there have been conflicting results on the empirical performance of the model. In this paper, I attempt to reconcile these conflicting claims by examining various specifications of the model within the context of a single framework. I find that the New Keynesian model does not fit the U.S. data well; in particular, the model requires additional lags of inflation not implied by the model under rational expectations. These additional lags have the interpretation that some fraction of the population uses a simple univariate rule for forecasting inflation.

Keywords: Inflation, Phillips curve, New Keynesian economics

PDF: Full Paper

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Last Update: January 29, 2021