1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815644103321

Autore

Walsh James P

Titolo

Inflation and income inequality : is food inflation different? / / James P. Walsh and Jiangyan Yu

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Washington, D.C., : International Monetary Fund, c2012

ISBN

1-4755-7529-7

1-4755-3330-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (23 p.)

Collana

IMF working paper ; ; 12/147

Altri autori (Persone)

YuJiangyan

Disciplina

338.29356

Soggetti

Food prices

Income distribution

Inflation (Finance)

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 and Background; II. Stylized Facts; A. Inflation and Macroeconomic Data; B. Inequality Data; Figures; Figure 1: Cross Country: GDP Per Capita and Change of Gini, 2000-2010; Figure 2: Cross Country: Food Inflation and Change of Gini, 2000-2010; Figure 3: Cross Country: Non-food Inflation and Change of Gini, 2000-2010; C. China; Figure 4. China: Provincial GDP Per Capita and Change of Inequality, 2000-2005; Figure 5. China: Food Inflation and Change of Theil Index, 2000-2005; D. India; E. Other Data

Figure 6. China: Non-food Inflation and Change of Theil Index, 2000-2005Figure 7. India: Inequality and GDP per capita by State; Figure 8. Per capita GDP growth and change in GINI; III. Methodology; IV. Results; A. International Sample; B. China; C. India; V. Conclusion; Tables; 1. International Sample: Headline Inflation; 2. International Sample: Food and Nonfood CPI; 3. China: Headline Inflation; 4. China: Food and Nonfood CPI; 5. India: Headline CPI, Rural Areas; 6. India: Headline CPI, Urban Areas; 7. India: Food and Nonfood CPI, Rural Areas; 8. India: Food and Nonfood CPI, Urban Areas

References

Sommario/riassunto

There is an extensive literature noting that high inflation can add to income inequality, and a parallel literature assessing the effect of rising



food prices on the poor. This paper attempts to combine these strands by dividing inflation into food and nonfood inflation and assessing whether food inflation affects income inequality differently from nonfood inflation. In an international sample and a sample of Chinese provinces, nonfood inflation exacerbates income inequality while the role of food inflation is more mixed. In a sample of Indian states broken down into urban and rural areas, we find that nonfood inflation adds to income inequality in both areas, while food inflation has a neutral to positive effect on income inequality in rural areas, providing support for the theory that rural wages may respond elastically to food prices.