What is the basic trade-off described by the Phillips curve in macroeconomics?

• A. The long-run relationship between inflation and unemployment
• B. The short-run relationship where inflation and unemployment move together
• C. The short-run relationship between money supply and prices
• D. The short-run inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment

Answer: (A)

The basic idea is a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment. In the near term, when unemployment falls and the economy heats up, demand for labor and goods pushes up wages and prices, causing inflation to rise. If policy or shocks slow demand and unemployment rises, inflation tends to ease. So, in the short run, lower unemployment comes with higher inflation, and higher unemployment comes with lower inflation.

Over the longer run, however, people adjust their expectations, and the trade-off disappears as the economy returns to its natural rate of unemployment; the long-run relationship is not about inflation helping to reduce unemployment. That’s why the core concept is the short-run inverse relationship, while the long run shows no trade-off.