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The optimal inflation target in an economy with limited enforcement

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Author Info
Gaetano Antinolfi
Costas Azariadis
James B. Bullard

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Abstract

We formulate the central bank's problem of selecting an optimal long-run inflation rate as the choice of a distorting tax by a planner who wishes to maximize discounted utility for a heterogeneous population of infinitely-lived households in an economy with constant aggregate income. Households are divided into cash agents, who store value in currency alone, and credit agents who have access to both currency and loans. The planner's problem is equivalent to choosing inflation and nominal rates consistent with a resource constraint along with an incentive constraint that ensures credit agents prefer the superior consumption-smoothing power of loans to that of currency. We show that the optimum rate of inflation is positive, and the optimum nominal interest rate is higher than the inflation rate, if the social welfare function weighs credit agents no more than their population fraction.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its series Working Papers with number 2007-037.

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Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2007-037

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Keywords: Inflation (Finance) ; Deflation (Finance) ; Monetary policy - United States;

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  5. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Michael Woodford, 2003. "The Zero Bound on Interest Rates and Optimal Monetary Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 34(2003-1), pages 139-235. [Downloadable!]
  6. Kehoe, Timothy J & Levine, David K, 1993. "Debt-Constrained Asset Markets," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 60(4), pages 865-88, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(114), pages 175-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Gaetano Antinolfi & Costas Azariadis & James B. Bullard, 2007. "Monetary policy as equilibrium selection," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jul, pages 331-342. [Downloadable!]
  9. Azariadis, Costas & Kaas, Leo, 2007. "Asset price fluctuations without aggregate shocks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 126-143, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Foley, Duncan K & Shell, Karl & Sidrauski, Miguel, 1969. "Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy and Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(4), pages 698-719, Part II, . [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Aiyagari, S. Rao & Williamson, Stephen D., 2000. "Money and Dynamic Credit Arrangements with Private Information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 248-279, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. 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.
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