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Inflation and Income Inequality: Is Food Inflation Different?

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  • Mr. James P Walsh
  • Jiangyan Yu

Abstract

There is an extensive literature noting that high inflation can add to income inequality, and a parallel literature assessing the effect of rising food prices on the poor. This paper attempts to combine these strands by dividing inflation into food and nonfood inflation and assessing whether food inflation affects income inequality differently from nonfood inflation. In an international sample and a sample of Chinese provinces, nonfood inflation exacerbates income inequality while the role of food inflation is more mixed. In a sample of Indian states broken down into urban and rural areas, we find that nonfood inflation adds to income inequality in both areas, while food inflation has a neutral to positive effect on income inequality in rural areas, providing support for the theory that rural wages may respond elastically to food prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. James P Walsh & Jiangyan Yu, 2012. "Inflation and Income Inequality: Is Food Inflation Different?," IMF Working Papers 2012/147, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2012/147
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    3. Bagchi, Sutirtha & Curran, Michael & Fagerstrom, Matthew J., 2019. "Monetary growth and wealth inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 23-25.
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    5. N'Yilimon Nantob, 2015. "Income Inequality and Inflation in Developing Countries: An Empirical Investigation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2888-2902.
    6. Ryu, Hang K. & Slottje, Daniel J., 2017. "Maximum entropy estimation of income distributions from Basmann’s weighted geometric mean measure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 199(2), pages 221-231.
    7. Serhan Cevik & Carolina Correa-Caro, 2020. "Growing (un)equal: fiscal policy and income inequality in China and BRIC+," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 634-653, October.
    8. Sanjaya Acharya & Mohamed Ileas Mia, 2020. "Inflation, Growth, and Distribution Nexus in Post-Transition and Emerging Economies of South Asia," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 3, pages 368-383, September.
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