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Cold Progression and its Effects on Income Distribution

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Author Info
Burkhard Heer ()
Bernd Suessmuth ()

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Abstract

We present new empirical evidence for the US economy that inflation reduces the inequality of the earnings distribution. The main mechanism emphasized in this paper is the tax income bracket effect. Governments only adjust the nominal income tax brackets slowly to a rise in prices, typically less often than once every other year in the US post-war history. We also develop a theoretical general equilibrium monetary model with income heterogeneity. In this model, the effect of higher inflation on income distribution is shown to be rather small. However, we find that a longer duration between two successive adjustments of the income tax schedule reduces employment, savings, and output significantly.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by CESifo GmbH in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 951.

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Date of creation: 2003
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_951

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Related research
Keywords: cold progression; inflation; income distribution; tax income brackets;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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    Other versions:
  2. Budd, Edward C & Seiders, David F, 1971. "The Impact of Inflation on the Distribution of Income and Wealth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 128-38, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ana Casta¤eda & Javier D¡az-Gim‚nez & Jos‚-Victor R¡os-Rull, 1998. "Earnings and wealth inequality and income taxation: quantifying the tradeoffs of switching to a proportional income tax in the U.S," Working Paper 9814, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Shorrocks, A F, 1976. "Income Mobility and the Markov Assumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(343), pages 566-78, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Morten O. Ravn & Harald Uhlig, 2002. "On adjusting the Hodrick-Prescott filter for the frequency of observations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 371-375. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Aleš Bulir & Anne Marie Gulde, 1995. "Inflation and Income Distribution - Further Evidence on Empirical Links," IMF Working Papers 95/86, International Monetary Fund.
  7. Huggett, Mark, 1996. "Wealth distribution in life-cycle economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 469-494, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Alan J. Auerbach & Daniel Feenberg, 2000. "The Significance of Federal Taxes as Automatic Stabilizers," NBER Working Papers 7662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Christina D. Romer & David H. Romer, 1998. "Monetary policy and the well-being of the poor," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 159-201. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Hodrick, Robert J & Prescott, Edward C, 1997. "Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, February.
    Other versions:
  11. Imrohoroglu, Ayse & Imrohoroglu, Selahattin & Joines, Douglas H, 1998. "The Effect of Tax-Favored Retirement Accounts on Capital Accumulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 749-68, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Javier Díaz-Giménez & Vincenzo Quadrini & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, 1997. "Dimensions of inequality: facts on the U.S. distributions of earnings, income, and wealth," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Spr, pages 3-21. [Downloadable!]
  13. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 565-91, September.
  14. Bach, G L & Stephenson, James B, 1974. "Inflation and the Redistribution of Wealth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 56(1), pages 1-13, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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