International evidence on the cyclical behavior of inflation

This paper investigates the cyclical behavior of prices and inflation using the Backus and Kehoe (American Economic Review, 1992, 82, 864–888) data (consisting of over 100 years of annual observations for 10 countries) and the methodology suggested by Kydland and Prescott (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 1990, 3–18). The results show that prices and inflation are generally anything but procyclical.