The Lead of Output over Inflation in Sticky Price Models

Output growth is negatively correlated with inflation, detrended output is positively correlated with inflation, and output growth and detrended output lead inflation. I explore the consistency of these correlations with three models of price adjustment: the partial adjustment model, a staggered price setting model, and the P-bar model. The ratio of the variance of supply to demand shocks necessary to match the pattern of output-inflation correlations can be ranked across the three models; the P-Bar model requires the lowest ratio, and the partial adjustment model requires the highest ratio. The imperfect information aspects of staggered price setting and the P-bar model drive some of the output/inflation nexus, highlighting a link with the tradition from Hume to Lucas to recent work by Mankiw and Reis.