US Growth And Inflation

Abstract

This paper tests the relation between inflation and growth in the US. This relation is negative and statistically significant even with a monthly frequency. Moreover, the impact is higher with quarterly data, relative to annual data, and higher with monthly data relative to quarterly data. The relation remains robust (1) with IV (2SLS) estimation, (2) when inflation is divided into positive and negative components, (3) when it is divided into expected and unexpected components, and (4) when the applied model is an expectations-augmented Phillips curve. Although the paper argues that the theory that should explain this negative relation is the demand for real balances, the evidence is also consistent with a simple bivariate association.