Raise Rates to Raise Inflation? Neo-Fisherianism in the New Keynesian Model

Increasing the inflation target in a New Keynesian (NK) model may require increasing, rather than decreasing, the nominal interest rate in the short run. We refer to this positive short†run comovement between the nominal rates and inflation conditional on a nominal shock as Neo†Fisherianism. We show that the NK model is more likely to be Neo†Fisherian the more persistent is the change in the inflation target and the more flexible are prices. Neo†Fisherianism is driven by the forward†looking nature of the model. Modifications that make the framework less forward†looking make it less likely for the model to exhibit Neo†Fisherianism.