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Inflation and Welfare: A Search Approach

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  • BEN CRAIG
  • GUILLAUME ROCHETEAU

Abstract

This paper uses a search model of monetary exchange to provide new insights for evaluating the welfare costs of inflation. We first show that the search model of money can rationalize the estimates of the welfare cost of inflation based on the “welfare triangle” methodology of Bailey (1956) and Lucas (2000) provided that buyers appropriate the social marginal benefit of their real balances. For other mechanisms, the measure given by the welfare triangle has to be scaled up by a factor that increases with sellers' market power. We introduce capital and endogenous participation decisions and study how the cost of inflation is affected. We provide calibrated examples in which a deviation from the Friedman rule is optimal.

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  • Ben Craig & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2008. "Inflation and Welfare: A Search Approach," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1), pages 89-119, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:40:y:2008:i:1:p:89-119
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2008.00105.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
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    3. Seon Tae Kim & Alessandro Marchesiani, 2024. "Market intelligence gathering, asymmetric information, and the instability of money demand," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(3), pages 1216-1245, July.
    4. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Mei Dong & Stella Huangfu, 2021. "Money and Costly Credit," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(6), pages 1449-1478, September.

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