On Price Stability and Welfare

On Price Stability and Welfare PDF Author: Mr.Etienne B. Yehoue
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 147550537X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
The financial crisis in the advanced countries that began in 2007 has led central bankers to adopt unconventional policy measures as policy interest rates neared the zero bound. One suggestion (Blanchard, Dell’Ariccia, and Mauro, 2010) has been to raise inflation targets to provide more room for policy rate easing during crises. This paper addresses a different issue: the relationship between inflation and welfare. The literature is surveyed and a model is developed. A key conclusion is that an increase in inflation targets gives rise to additional welfare costs, even after the extra room to maneuver above the zero lower bound for nominal policy rates is taken into account. Based on parameter values that fit U.S. data, the additional welfare costs of raising inflation targets from 2 to 4 percent are estimated at about 0.3 percent of annual real income. A rise to 10 percent would yield additional welfare costs of about 1 percent of real income. Other parameter values yield welfare costs as high as 7 (respectively 30) percent of real income for raising inflation targets from 2 to 4 (respectively from 2 to 10) percent. The full costs of raising inflation targets are likely to be higher because the model used to generate these estimates does not account for higher inflation-induced volatility.

On Price Stability and Welfare

On Price Stability and Welfare PDF Author: Mr.Etienne B. Yehoue
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 147550537X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
The financial crisis in the advanced countries that began in 2007 has led central bankers to adopt unconventional policy measures as policy interest rates neared the zero bound. One suggestion (Blanchard, Dell’Ariccia, and Mauro, 2010) has been to raise inflation targets to provide more room for policy rate easing during crises. This paper addresses a different issue: the relationship between inflation and welfare. The literature is surveyed and a model is developed. A key conclusion is that an increase in inflation targets gives rise to additional welfare costs, even after the extra room to maneuver above the zero lower bound for nominal policy rates is taken into account. Based on parameter values that fit U.S. data, the additional welfare costs of raising inflation targets from 2 to 4 percent are estimated at about 0.3 percent of annual real income. A rise to 10 percent would yield additional welfare costs of about 1 percent of real income. Other parameter values yield welfare costs as high as 7 (respectively 30) percent of real income for raising inflation targets from 2 to 4 (respectively from 2 to 10) percent. The full costs of raising inflation targets are likely to be higher because the model used to generate these estimates does not account for higher inflation-induced volatility.

Welfare Cost of (Low) Inflation

Welfare Cost of (Low) Inflation PDF Author: Mr.Howell H. Zee
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451853440
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
This paper provides general equilibrium estimates of the steady-state welfare gains of lowering inflation from a low level to close to price stability, using an overlapping-generations growth model. Money demand is modeled on the basis that real money balances are a factor of production. Assuming a standard Fisher equation modified by the presence of an income tax, it is found that inflation unambiguously reduces capital intensity, drives up the before-tax real rate of return to capital, and unambiguously imposes a life-time welfare cost. This welfare cost is, however, quantitatively very modest (under 0.2 percent of GDP annually) within reasonable ranges of all parameter values.

Welfare Costs of Inflation, Seigniorage, and Financial innovation

Welfare Costs of Inflation, Seigniorage, and Financial innovation PDF Author: Mr.Jose De Gregorio
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 145193128X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
This paper examines the welfare effects of mitigating the costs of inflation. In a simple model where money reduces transaction costs, a fall in the costs of inflation is equivalent to financial innovation. This can be caused by paying interest on deposits, indexing money, or “dollarizing.” Results indicate that financial innovation raises welfare in low inflation economies while reducing it in high inflation economies, due to the offsetting indirect effect of higher inflation to finance the budget.

On the Welfare Cost of Inflation and the Recent Behavior of Money Demand

On the Welfare Cost of Inflation and the Recent Behavior of Money Demand PDF Author: Peter Nathan Ireland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Inflation (Finance)
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
"Post-1980 U.S. data trace out a stable long-run money demand relationship of Cagan's semi-log form between the M1-income ratio and the nominal interest rate, with an interest semi-elasticity below 2. Integrating under this money demand curve yields estimates of the welfare costs of modest departures from Friedman's zero nominal interest rate rule for the optimum quantity of money that are quite small. The results suggest that the Federal Reserve's current policy, which generates low but still positive rates of inflation, provides an adequate approximation in welfare terms to the alternative of moving all the way to the Friedman rule"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

On the Welfare Cost of Inflation

On the Welfare Cost of Inflation PDF Author: Robert E. Lucas (Jr)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Inflation (Finance)
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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A Transitional Analysis of the Welfare Cost of Inflation

A Transitional Analysis of the Welfare Cost of Inflation PDF Author: Clark A. Burdick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Inflation (Finance)
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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A Time-varying Approach of the US Welfare Cost of Inflation

A Time-varying Approach of the US Welfare Cost of Inflation PDF Author: Stephen M. Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The Welfare Cost of Inflation

The Welfare Cost of Inflation PDF Author: Smithin, John Nicholas
Publisher: Calgary : Department of Economics, University of Calgary
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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The Welfare Cost of Permanent Inflation and Optimal Short-run Economic Policy

The Welfare Cost of Permanent Inflation and Optimal Short-run Economic Policy PDF Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Phillips curve
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
At a minimum, this paper should serve as a warning against too easy an acceptance of the view that the costs of sustained inflation are small relative to the costs of unemployment. If a temporary reduction in unemployment causes a permanent increase in inflation, the present value of the resulting future welfare costs may well exceed the temporary short-run gain. Previous analyses have underestimated the cost of a permanent increase in the inflation rate because they have ignored the growth of the economy and therefore the growth of the future instantaneous welfare costs. In the important case in which the growth of aggregate income exceeds the social discount rate, no reduction in unemployment can justify any permanent increase in the rate of inflation. Quite the contrary, if the inflation rate is above its optimal level, the economy should then be deflated to reduce the inflation rate regardless of the temporary consequences for unemployment.

An Evaluation of the Measures of the Welfare Cost of Inflation

An Evaluation of the Measures of the Welfare Cost of Inflation PDF Author: Robert Ware Hooper (Jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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