IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jmoncb/v55y2023i4p717-746.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inflation and Welfare in a Competitive Search Equilibrium with Asymmetric Information

Author

Listed:
  • LORENZO CARBONARI
  • FABRIZIO MATTESINI
  • ROBERT J. WALDMANN

Abstract

We study an economy characterized by competitive search and asymmetric information. Money is essential. Buyers decide their cash holdings after observing the contracts posted by firms and experience match‐specific preference shocks which remain unknown to sellers. Firms are allowed to post general contracts. In the baseline model with indivisible goods, we show that, when the number of potential buyers is fixed, inflation decreases markups. This, in turn, increases aggregate output and ex ante welfare. When goods are divisible the negative effect of inflation on markups holds for unconstrained agents but is ambiguous for constrained agents. Still, optimal monetary policy implies a positive nominal rate. When there is buyers' free entry, asymmetric information causes a congestion effect that can be corrected by monetary policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lorenzo Carbonari & Fabrizio Mattesini & Robert J. Waldmann, 2023. "Inflation and Welfare in a Competitive Search Equilibrium with Asymmetric Information," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(4), pages 717-746, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:55:y:2023:i:4:p:717-746
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.12991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jmcb.12991
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jmcb.12991?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levine, David K., 1991. "Asset trading mechanisms and expansionary policy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 148-164, June.
    2. Craig, Ben & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2008. "State-dependent pricing, inflation, and welfare in search economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 441-468, April.
    3. Veronica Guerrieri & Guido Lorenzoni, 2009. "Liquidity and Trading Dynamics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(6), pages 1751-1790, November.
    4. Anindya Banerjee & Lynne Cockerell & Bill Russell, 2001. "An I(2) analysis of inflation and the markup," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 221-240.
    5. Berentsen, Aleksander & Menzio, Guido & Wright, Randall D., 2007. "Inflation and Unemployment: Lagos-Wright meets Mortensen-Pissarides," Kiel Working Papers 1334, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Han Han & Benoit Julien & Asgerdur Petursdottir & Liang Wang, 2016. "Credit, Money and Asset Equilibria with Indivisible Goods," Working Papers 201601, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    7. Shouyong Shi, 1997. "A Divisible Search Model of Fiat Money," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 75-102, January.
    8. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    9. Eeckhout, Jan & Kircher, Philipp, 2010. "Sorting versus screening: Search frictions and competing mechanisms," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(4), pages 1354-1385, July.
    10. Boel, Paola & Camera, Gabriele, 2006. "Efficient monetary allocations and the illiquidity of bonds," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1693-1715, October.
    11. Benjamin Lester & Andrew Postlewaite & Randall Wright, 2012. "Information, Liquidity, Asset Prices, and Monetary Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 1209-1238.
    12. Guillaume Rocheteau & Peter Rupert & Randall Wright, 2007. "Inflation and Unemployment in General Equilibrium," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(4), pages 837-855, December.
    13. Mattesini, Fabrizio & Nosal, Ed, 2016. "Liquidity and asset prices in a monetary model with OTC asset markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 187-217.
    14. Athanasios Geromichalos & Kuk Mo Jung, 2019. "Monetary policy and efficiency in over-the-counter financial trade," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1699-1754, November.
    15. Jean, Kasie & Rabinovich, Stanislav & Wright, Randall, 2010. "On the multiplicity of monetary equilibria: Green-Zhou meets Lagos-Wright," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 392-401, January.
    16. Aruoba, S. Boragan & Chugh, Sanjay K., 2010. "Optimal fiscal and monetary policy when money is essential," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(5), pages 1618-1647, September.
    17. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
    18. Andolfatto, David, 2010. "Essential interest-bearing money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(4), pages 1495-1507, July.
    19. Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie & Uribe, Martín, 2010. "The Optimal Rate of Inflation," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 13, pages 653-722, Elsevier.
    20. Veronica Guerrieri & Robert Shimer & Randall Wright, 2010. "Adverse Selection in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(6), pages 1823-1862, November.
    21. Banerjee, Anindya & Russell, Bill, 2005. "Inflation and measures of the markup," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 289-306, June.
    22. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.
    23. Faig Miquel & Jerez Belén, 2006. "Inflation, Prices, and Information in Competitive Search," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-34, September.
    24. Timothy J. Kehoe & David K. Levine & Michael Woodford, 1990. "The optimum quantity of money revisited," Working Papers 404, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    25. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    26. Adrian Masters, 2013. "Inflation and Welfare in Retail Markets: Prior Production and Imperfectly Directed Search," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(5), pages 821-844, August.
    27. Casella, Alessandra & Feinstein, Jonathan S, 1990. "Economic Exchange during Hyperinflation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 1-27, February.
    28. Allen Head & Alok Kumar, 2005. "Price Dispersion, Inflation, And Welfare," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 533-572, May.
    29. Bester, Helmut & Strausz, Roland, 2001. "Contracting with Imperfect Commitment and the Revelation Principle: The Single Agent Case," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 1077-1098, July.
    30. Dong, Mei & Jiang, Janet Hua, 2014. "Money and price posting under private information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 740-777.
    31. Dong, Mei, 2011. "Inflation And Unemployment In Competitive Search Equilibrium," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(S2), pages 252-268, September.
    32. Roger B. Myerson, 1981. "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 58-73, February.
    33. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-969, July.
    34. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    35. Ping He & Lixin Huang & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money And Banking In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 637-670, May.
    36. Lippi, Francesco & Ragni, Stefania & Trachter, Nicholas, 2015. "Optimal monetary policy with heterogeneous money holdings," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 339-368.
    37. repec:mcb:jmoncb:v:45:y:2013:i::p:821-844 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2011. "Payments and liquidity under adverse selection," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 191-205.
    39. Han, Han & Julien, Benoît & Petursdottir, Asgerdur & Wang, Liang, 2016. "Equilibrium using credit or money with indivisible goods," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 152-163.
    40. Nosal, Ed, 2011. "Search, Welfare, And The “Hot Potato” Effect Of Inflation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(S2), pages 313-326, September.
    41. Scheinkman, Jose A & Weiss, Laurence, 1986. "Borrowing Constraints and Aggregate Economic Activity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(1), pages 23-45, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    2. Stephen D. Williamson & Randall Wright, 2010. "New monetarist economics: methods," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 92(May), pages 265-302.
    3. Nejat Anbarci & Richard Dutu & Ching‐Jen Sun, 2019. "On The Timing Of Production Decisions In Monetary Economies," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 60(1), pages 447-472, February.
    4. Aruoba, S. Boragan & Waller, Christopher J. & Wright, Randall, 2011. "Money and capital," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 98-116, March.
    5. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Wong, Russell, 2018. "A tractable model of monetary exchange with ex-post heterogeneity," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), September.
    6. Nosal, Ed & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2013. "Pairwise trade, asset prices, and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-17.
    7. Athanasios Geromichalos & Kuk Mo Jung, 2019. "Monetary policy and efficiency in over-the-counter financial trade," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1699-1754, November.
    8. Baughman, Garth & Rabinovich, Stanislav, 2021. "Capacity choice, monetary trade, and the cost of inflation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    9. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Wright, Randall & Xiaolin Xiao, Sylvia, 2018. "Open market operations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 114-128.
    10. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Wang, Lu, 2023. "Endogenous liquidity and volatility," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    11. Wang, Liang, 2016. "Endogenous search, price dispersion, and welfare," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 94-117.
    12. Lippi, Francesco & Ragni, Stefania & Trachter, Nicholas, 2015. "Optimal monetary policy with heterogeneous money holdings," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 339-368.
    13. Athanasios Geromichalos & Lucas Herrenbrueck, 2022. "The Liquidity-Augmented Model of Macroeconomic Aggregates: A New Monetarist DSGE Approach," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 134-167, July.
    14. Ritter Moritz, 2010. "The Optimum Quantity of Money Revisited: Distortionary Taxation in a Search Model of Money," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, June.
    15. Han, Han & Julien, Benoît & Petursdottir, Asgerdur & Wang, Liang, 2019. "Asset liquidity and indivisibility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 236-250.
    16. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Wright, Randall, 2013. "Liquidity and asset-market dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 275-294.
    17. Trejos, Alberto & Wright, Randall, 2016. "Search-based models of money and finance: An integrated approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 10-31.
    18. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2014. "Liquidity provision, interest rates, and unemployment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 80-101.
    19. Wright, Randall & Xiao, Sylvia Xiaolin & Zhu, Yu, 2018. "Frictional capital reallocation I: Ex ante heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 100-116.
    20. Athanasios Geromichalos & Lucas Herrenbrueck & Sukjoon Lee, 2023. "The Strategic Determination of the Supply of Liquid Assets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 49, pages 1-36, July.

    More about this item

    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:wly:jmoncb:v:55:y:2023:i:4:p:717-746. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2879 .

    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.