IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedker/y1996iqiip71-88nv.81no.2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The long-run costs of moderate inflation

Author

Listed:
  • Gregory D. Hess
  • Charles S. Morris

Abstract

Long-run price stability is generally considered to be a primary goal of monetary policymakers in many countries. One reason policymakers care about inflation is that it can harm economic performance. Numerous studies of the impact of inflation on economic performance have focused on whether increases in inflation reduce economic growth in the long run These studies have found that prolonged high inflation does in fact reduce economic growth, but they were not able to detect a significant long-run relationship between real growth and low or moderate inflation. Because anti-inflationary policies typically have short-run costs, such as higher unemployment and slower economic growth, the results from these studies may lead people to ask whether such policies are appropriate when inflation is low or moderate.> Hess and Morris contend that anti-inflationary policies may be appropriate, even if low to moderate long-run inflation does not reduce long-run growth, if inflation harms the economy in other ways. Three potentially harmful consequences of inflation are considered: (1) inflation uncertainty, (2) real growth variability, and (3) relative price volatility. These consequences are costly because they reduce economic efficiency and therefore the level of economic output and consumer welfare.> The authors discuss the costs of inflation uncertainty, real growth variability, and relative price volatility, and examine their empirical relationship with inflation. They show that inflation uncertainty, real growth variability, and relative price volatility all tend to rise as long-run inflation rises from low to moderate levels. As a result, they conclude that policymakers may find it justifiable to pursue anti-inflationary policies even when inflation is low.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory D. Hess & Charles S. Morris, 1996. "The long-run costs of moderate inflation," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 81(Q II), pages 71-88.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedker:y:1996:i:qii:p:71-88:n:v.81no.2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.kansascityfed.org/documents/1198/1996-The%20Long-Run%20Costs%20of%20Moderate%20Inflation.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ball, Laurence & Romer, David, 2003. "Inflation and the Informativeness of Prices," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(2), pages 177-196, April.
    2. Pu Shen, 1995. "Benefits and limitations of inflation indexed Treasury bonds," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 80(Q III), pages 41-56.
    3. Bruno, Michael & Easterly, William, 1998. "Inflation crises and long-run growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 3-26, February.
    4. F. J. M. Meyer & J. L. Meyer, 1994. "An International Sectoral Data Base for Fourteen OECD Countries (Second Edition)," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 145, OECD Publishing.
    5. Katsimbris, George M, 1985. "The Relationship between the Inflation Rate, Its Variability, and Output Growth Variability: Disaggregated International Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 179-188, May.
    6. Parks, Richard W, 1978. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(1), pages 79-95, February.
    7. Fischer, Stanley, 1993. "The role of macroeconomic factors in growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 485-512, December.
    8. Cukierman, Alex & Meltzer, Allan H, 1986. "A Theory of Ambiguity, Credibility, and Inflation under Discretion and Asymmetric Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1099-1128, September.
    9. Ball, Laurence, 1992. "Why does high inflation raise inflation uncertainty?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 371-388, June.
    10. Friedman, Milton, 1977. "Nobel Lecture: Inflation and Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 451-472, June.
    11. Herbert Glejser, 1965. "Inflation, productivity, and relative prices-A statistical study," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/290369, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. John E. Golob, 1994. "Does inflation uncertainty increase with inflation?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 79(Q III), pages 27-38.
    13. Logue, Dennis E & Sweeney, Richard James, 1981. "Inflation and Real Growth: Some Empirical Results: A Note," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 13(4), pages 497-501, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mehmet Balcilar & Shinhye Chang & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2018. "The relationship between the inflation rate and inequality across U.S. states: a semiparametric approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 2413-2425, September.
    2. Muhammad Khan, 2013. "Inflation and Sectoral Output Growth Variability in Bulgaria," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 55(4), pages 687-704, December.
    3. Gennady Bilych, 2013. "What Is There in Common between Arab Revolutions and the Coase Theorem?," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 126-152, June.
    4. Tsyplakov, Alexander, 2010. "The links between inflation and inflation uncertainty at the longer horizon," MPRA Paper 26908, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Davis, George & Kanago, Bryce, 1998. "High and Uncertain Inflation: Results from a New Data Set," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(2), pages 218-230, May.
    6. Davis, George K & Kanago, Bryce E, 2000. "The Level and Uncertainty of Inflation: Results from OECD Forecasts," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 58-72, January.
    7. WenShwo Fang & Stephen Miller & Chih-Chuan Yeh, 2010. "Does a threshold inflation rate exist? Quantile inferences for inflation and its variability," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 619-641, December.
    8. Brian O'Reilly, 1998. "The Benefits of Low Inflation: Taking Shock "A nickel ain't worth a dime any more" [Yogi Berra]," Technical Reports 83, Bank of Canada.
    9. Frederic S Mishkin, 1997. "Strategies for Controlling Inflation," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Philip Lowe (ed.),Monetary Policy and Inflation Targeting, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    10. Carlos Humberto Cardona & Adriana Pontón & Eduardo Sarmiento, 1998. "Evidencia Sobre Las Desinflaciones: Experiencia Internacional," Borradores de Economia 2650, Banco de la Republica.
    11. Ghrissi Mhamdi, 2013. "Stability Of Money Demand Function In Tunisia," Post-Print halshs-01138431, HAL.
    12. Frederic S. Mishkin & Adam S. Posen, 1997. "Inflation targeting: lessons from four countries," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 3(Aug), pages 9-110.
    13. Sitikantha Pattanaik & G.V. Nadhanael, 2013. "Why persistent high inflation impedes growth? An empirical assessment of threshold level of inflation for India," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 204-220, September.
    14. Inoue, Tetsuya, 1998. "Impact of Information Technology and Implications for Monetary Policy," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 16(2), pages 29-60, December.
    15. Khan, Muhammad, 2016. "Evidence on the functional form of inflation and output growth variability relationship in European economies," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Tsyplakov Alexander, 2010. "The links between inflation and inflation uncertainty at the longer horizon," EERC Working Paper Series 10/09e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2009. "Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12777.
    2. Said Zamin Shah & Said Zamin Shah & Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Muzafar Shah Habibullah & Law Siong Hook, 2017. "The Asymmetric Effects of Real and Nominal Uncertainty on Inflation and Output Growth: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 377-386.
    3. Girijasankar Mallik & Anis Chowdhury, 2011. "Effect of inflation uncertainty, output uncertainty and oil price on inflation and growth in Australia," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(4), pages 414-429, September.
    4. Dong-Hyeon Kim & Shu-Chin Lin, 2012. "Inflation and Inflation Volatility Revisited," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 327-345, December.
    5. B. Balaji & S. Raja Sethu Durai & M. Ramachandran, 2016. "The Dynamics Between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty: Evidence from India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Slesman, Ly & Wohar, Mark E., 2016. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty, and economic growth in emerging and developing countries: Panel data evidence," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 638-657.
    7. Kuang‐Liang Chang & Chi‐Wei He, 2010. "Does The Magnitude Of The Effect Of Inflation Uncertainty On Output Growth Depend On The Level Of Inflation?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 78(2), pages 126-148, March.
    8. Sintim-Aboagye, Hermann, 2013. "Imf And World Bank Economic Programs On Inflation: Relevance To Nepad," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 9(1-2), January.
    9. Tsvetomir Tsvetkov & Sonya Georgieva, 2022. "Inflation, Inflation Instability and Nominal Uncertainty in Bulgarian Economy," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 8, pages 41-64.
    10. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2015. "The Evolution of Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14611.
    11. Hossain, A., 2005. "Granger-Causality Between Inflation, Money Growth, Currency Devaluation and Economic Growth in Indonesia, 1951-2002," International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 2(3), pages 45-68.
    12. Kushal Banik Chowdhury & Kaustav Kanti Sarkar & Srikanta Kundu, 2021. "Nonlinear relationships between inflation, output growth and uncertainty in India: New evidence from a bivariate threshold model," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 469-493, July.
    13. Wilson, Bradley Kemp, 2006. "The links between inflation, inflation uncertainty and output growth: New time series evidence from Japan," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 609-620, September.
    14. Bernard Njindan Iyke & Sin-Yu Ho, 2019. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty, and Growth: Evidence from Ghana," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 13(2), June.
    15. Vale, Sergio Rodrigo, 2005. "Inflation, Growth and Real and Nominal Uncertainty: Some Bivariate Garch-in-Mean Evidence for Brazil," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 59(1), January.
    16. Sartaj Rasool Rather & Raja Sethu Durai & Muthia Ramachandran, 2018. "Inflation and the Dispersion of Relative Prices: A Case for 4 % Solution," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 81-91, March.
    17. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2014. "Inflation and Inflation Volatility in Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 33(2), pages 163-185, June.
    18. Berument, Hakan & Yalcin, Yeliz & Yildirim, Julide, 2009. "The effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation: Stochastic volatility in mean model within a dynamic framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1201-1207, November.
    19. Akhand Akhtar Hossain & Popkarn Arwatchanakarn, 2016. "Inflation and inflation volatility in Thailand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(30), pages 2792-2806, June.
    20. Said Zamin Shah & Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Muzafar Shah Habibullah, 2019. "Dynamic Linkages and Volatility Transmissions between Macroeconomic Uncertainty and Performance: Evidence from South Asian Countries," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 281-313, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prices; Inflation (Finance);

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedker:y:1996:i:qii:p:71-88:n:v.81no.2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Zach Kastens (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbkcus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.