What remains from the trade-off between inflation and unemployment? (A brief reflection on the Phillips curve)

Roma

Congreso; European Society for the History of Economic Thought XIX Annual Conference Roma Tre University, Rome; 2015

Roma Tre University

This paper analyses the debate that took place in the second half of the twentieth century about the relationship between inflation and unemployment. The "discovery" of the Phillips curve, provides a powerful tool for the economic policy. But, as always happens in the history of economic ideas, some year later a hard discussion among the economists. At the end, the discussion was about the effectiveness or sterility of economic policies to change the level of unemployment (and inflation) of the economy.Although with slightly different features, this is a discussion which is still open to debate among economists.