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Welfare costs of inflation in a dynamic economy with search unemployment

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  • Heer, Burkhard

Abstract

Recent work on money and endogenous growth finds modest welfare costs of inflation. Furthermore, high inflation reduces the growth rate. We present a monetary endogenous growth model with labor market frictions in the form of search unemployment which is calibrated for the US economy. Interestingly, both employment and the growth rate may even increase with the rate of inflation depending on the elasticity of labor supply. Considering the transition dynamics following a change in the monetary policy, the optimal quarterly inflation rate is found to amount to approximately 3.5% in the benchmark case. A reduction of the inflation rate from its optimal value to zero results in a welfare loss equal to 0.3% of total consumption.
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  • Heer, Burkhard, 2003. "Welfare costs of inflation in a dynamic economy with search unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 255-272, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:28:y:2003:i:2:p:255-272
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    Cited by:

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    2. Heer, Burkhard, 2003. "Welfare costs of inflation in a dynamic economy with search unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 255-272, November.
    3. Conway Bruce A & Rosenblatt-Wisch Rina & Schenk-Hoppé Klaus Reiner, 2009. "(Un)anticipated Technological Change in an Endogenous Growth Model," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, March.
    4. HIRAGUCHI Ryoji, 2021. "Optimal Wealth Taxation in the Schumpeterian Growth Model with Unemployment," Discussion papers 21056, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Schubert, Stefan F., 2011. "The effects of total factor productivity and export shocks on a small open economy with unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1514-1530, September.
    6. Chang, Juin-Jen & Lai, Ching-Chong & Liao, Chih-Hsing, 2017. "Welfare Cost of Inflation: The Role of Price Markups and Increasing Returns to Production Specialization," MPRA Paper 77753, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Angus C. Chu & Guido Cozzi & Haichao Fan & Yuichi Furukawa, 2021. "Inflation, Unemployment, and Economic Growth in a Schumpeterian Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(3), pages 874-909, July.
    8. Chen, Been-Lon & Liao, Shian-Yu & Liu, Dongpeng & Liu, Xiangbo, 2023. "Optimal long-run money growth rate in a cash-in-advance economy with labor-market frictions," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(6), pages 1737-1766, September.
    9. Alok Kumar, 2013. "Inflation, Redistribution, and Real Activities," Department Discussion Papers 1302, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    10. Schubert, Stefan F. & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2018. "Growth and unemployment: Short-run and long-run tradeoffs," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 172-189.
    11. Marcelo Arbex & Dennis O'Dea, 2014. "Networks in labor markets and welfare costs of inflation," Working Papers 1401, University of Windsor, Department of Economics.

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