Personal pronouns and demonstratives contribute differently to the encoding of information in the mental model and they serve distinct backward- and forward-looking functions. While (unstressed) personal pronouns are the default means to indicate coreference with the most prominent discourse entity (backward-looking function) and typically mark the maintenance of the current topic, demonstrativ...

The New-Keynesian Phillips curve is usually reported to fit the data better when lagged inflation, and therefore backward-looking price setting, is included in the equation. We argue that the same inflation persistence can be generated by letting the shocks in the economy be highly correlated in a model where price setting is purely forward-looking. Previous estimates in the literature are bias...

We study learning in communication games. Our main finding is that a simple forward-looking learning rule leads to communication in a large class of games. This class is characterized by a partial-common-interest condition. In contrast, we show that a variety of purely backward looking dynamics may fail to guarantee communication. Memory is a partial substitute for looking forward: With long me...

In this paper we aim at formalizing two distinct notions of responsibility: backward-looking responsibility and forward-looking responsibility. The first notion implies blameworthiness while the second one implies obligation. They are related to each other though, since, under certain conditions, forward-looking implies backward-looking. We claim here that an ideal framework of cooperative agen...

Determinacy of equilibrium under the original, the backward-looking, the forward-looking and the hybrid Phillips curves is examined. If the monetary authority keeps the nominal money stock to be constant, the equilibrium path is always determinate under the original Phillips curve and the forward-looking one. Under the backward-looking one and the hybrid one, however, the path can be non-existe...