Abstract
Friedman’s observations on the Phillips curve are considered. Consonant with Macroeconomics and the Phillips curve myth, it is argued that the idea that policymakers ever believed excess demand could bring low unemployment at the expense of only stable inflation is a fiction, and that in any case, Friedman made no original arguments on the point. Close analysis of what Friedman said about the Phillips curve, and when he said it bears out that view, and shows that Friedman adopted a fictitious historical story in 1975 and thereafter gave inappropriate emphasis to his own supposed innovation in the matter.
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Notes
- 1.
Friedman is reported as saying he thought the curve vertical in verbal discussion in Friedman (1971a, p. 70). His remark does not seem either quite pertinent or quite consistent with his comments in Friedman (1970f) which was already published at the time of the conference. Perhaps the record is inaccurate. Still, there is no sign of Friedman indicating that the idea had been original in Friedman (1968a).
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Forder, J. (2019). The Phillips Curve. In: Milton Friedman. Great Thinkers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-38784-4_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-38784-4_16
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-38783-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38784-4
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