1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786483003321

Autore

Yehoue Etienne

Titolo

On Price Stability and Welfare / / Etienne Yehoue

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Washington, D.C. : , : International Monetary Fund, , 2012

ISBN

1-4755-7925-X

1-4755-1365-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (37 p.)

Collana

IMF Working Papers

Soggetti

Price regulation

Welfare economics

Banks and Banking

Inflation

Macroeconomics

Money and Monetary Policy

Mathematical Methods

Price Level

Deflation

Demand for Money

Money and Interest Rates: Forecasting and Simulation

Monetary Policy

Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions

Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects

Monetary economics

Finance

Inflation targeting

Demand for money

Personal income

Real interest rates

Monetary policy

Prices

Money

National accounts

Financial services

Income

Interest rates

United States



Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Contents; I. Introduction; II. Inflation and Growth; III. Inflation and Welfare: A General Equilibrium Approach; Tables; 1. Inflation Targets or Definitions of Price Stability in Selected Countries; A. The Opportunity Cost Channel; B. A Simple Model of Inflation and Welfare; 2. Summary of the Calibration Results; C. The Menu Cost Channel; D. Some Caveats; IV. Balancing Costs and Benefits; V. Concluding Remarks; Figures; 1. Welfare Cost Function with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K= (0.05)

2. Welfare Cost Function with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K = exp (0.05)3. Welfare Cost Function with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K= (0.3548); 4. Welfare Cost Function with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K = exp(0.3548); 5. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K = (0.05); 6. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K = exp (0.05)

7. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K = (0.3548)8. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K = exp (0.3548); 9. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 1.7944 and K = (0.1686); 10. Welfare Costs at Various Inflation Targets with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 1.7944 and K = exp (0.1686); 11. Welfare Costs at Various Inflations with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K = (0.05)

12. Welfare Costs at Various Inflations with Log-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 0.5 and K = exp (0.05)13. Welfare Costs at Various Inflations with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K = (0.3548); 14. Welfare Costs at Various Inflations with Semi-Log Money Demand Function, Alpha = 7 and K = exp (0.3548); References

Sommario/riassunto

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.