Inflation: costs and benefits

• Aggregate and Welfare Effects of Redistribution of Wealth Under Inflation and Price-Level Targeting

  Staff Working Paper 2008-31 Césaire Meh, José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, Yaz Terajima

  Since the work of Doepke and Schneider (2006a) and Meh and Terajima (2008), we know that inflation causes major redistribution of wealth – between households and the government, between nationals and foreigners, and between households within the same country.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework, Sectoral balance sheet JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, E, E2, E21, E3, E31, E4, E44, E5, E52, E6, E63

• The Welfare Implications of Fiscal Dominance

  Staff Working Paper 2008-28 Carlos De Resende, Nooman Rebei

  This paper studies the interdependence between fiscal and monetary policy in a DSGE model with sticky prices and non-zero trend inflation. We characterize the fiscal and monetary policies by a rule whereby a given fraction k of the government debt must be backed by the discounted value of current and future primary surpluses.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Fiscal policy, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E4, E42, E5, E50, E6, E63

• Inflation, Nominal Portfolios, and Wealth Redistribution in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2008-19 Césaire Meh, Yaz Terajima

  There is currently a policy debate on potential refinements to monetary policy regimes in countries with low and stable inflation such as the U.S. and Canada. For example, in Canada, a systematic review of the current inflation targeting framework is underway.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework, Sectoral balance sheet JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, D5, D58, E, E3, E31, E5, E50

• Uncertainty, Inflation, and Welfare

  Staff Working Paper 2008-13 Jonathan Chiu, Miguel Molico

  This paper studies the welfare costs and the redistributive effects of inflation in the presence of idiosyncratic liquidity risk, in a micro-founded search-theoretical monetary model. We calibrate the model to match the empirical aggregate money demand and the distribution of money holdings across households, and study the effects of inflation under the implied degree of market incompleteness.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E50

• Inflation Targeting and Price-Level-Path Targeting in the GEM: Some Open Economy Considerations

  Staff Working Paper 2008-6 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde, Dirk Muir

  This paper compares the performance of simple inflation targeting (IT) and price-level path targeting (PLPT) rules to stabilize the macroeconomy, in response to a series of shocks, similar to those seen in Canada and the United States over the 1983 to 2004 period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, C52, E, E1, E17, E3, E31, E5, E52
• December 14, 2007

  The Costs of Inflation in New Keynesian Models

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2007-2008 Steve Ambler

  Ambler describes three new channels through which inflation affects economic welfare in New Keynesian models. These channels were absent from traditional analyses and may have caused researchers to underestimate the costs associated with variable inflation, even at relatively low levels of inflation. The article concludes with a preliminary assessment of the quantitative importance of the new channels and their significance for monetary policy.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework
• December 11, 2007

  The Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates: Implications for Monetary Policy

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2007-2008 Claude Lavoie, Stephen Murchison

  One of the most important factors that must be considered if countries are thinking about lowering the target level of inflation much below 2 per cent is the zero interest bound. Targeting inflation rates that are too low, the authors note, may restrict the ability of monetary policy to respond to economic shocks by limiting the amount by which interest rates can be eased.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits, Interest rates, Monetary policy implementation

• Trend Inflation, Wage and Price Rigidities, and Welfare

  Staff Working Paper 2007-42 Robert Amano, Kevin Moran, Stephen Murchison, Andrew Rennison

  This paper studies the steady-state costs of inflation in a general-equilibrium model with real per capita output growth and staggered nominal price and wage contracts.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits JEL Code(s): E, E0, E5

• Liquidity, Redistribution, and the Welfare Cost of Inflation

  Staff Working Paper 2007-39 Jonathan Chiu, Miguel Molico

  This paper studies the long run welfare costs of inflation in a micro-founded model with trading frictions and costly liquidity management.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E50

• Cross-Country Estimates of the Degree of Fiscal Dominance and Central Bank Independence

  Staff Working Paper 2007-36 Carlos De Resende

  This paper studies the interdependence between fiscal and monetary policies, and their joint role in the determination of the price level.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Fiscal policy, Inflation: costs and benefits JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E4, E42, E5, E50, E6, E63