ACCELERATING INFLATION OR RISING UNEMPLOYMENT ‐IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?

ABSTRACT Empirical observations suggest the existence of an unstable inflation‐unemployment trade‐off: whereas high levels of employment generate accelerating inflation rates, stability of the price level seems to require growing rates of unemployment. Under these conditions, macroeconomic policy has to produce countervailing economic fluctuations in order to limit the extent of the two‐sided instability. This is discussed within the framework of a macroeconomic model, in which prices and wages are determined by potential competition, and in which employment depends on monetary demand. The model is confronted with prevailing natural rate theories in which a stable equilibrium rate of employment is determined by supply conditions.