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The Non-Monotonic Relationship Between Seigniorage and Inequality

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Bhattacharya, Joydeep
Bunzel, Helle
Haslag, J.

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Abstract

Central banks typically find it difficult to turn off the “political pressure valve”. This has important consequences for the types of monetary policies they implement. This paper presents an analysis of how political factors may come into play in the equilibrium determination of inflation. We employ a standard overlapping generations model with heterogenous young-age endowments, and a government that funds an exogenous spending via a combination of nondistortionary income taxes and the inflation tax. Agents have access to two stores of value: fiat money and an inflation-shielded, yet costly, asset. The model predicts that the relationship between elected reliance on the inflation tax (for revenue) and income inequality is non-monotonic; in particular, the reliance on seigniorage may decrease as income inequality rises above a threshold. We find robust empirical backing for this hypothesis from a cross-section of countries.

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Paper provided by Iowa State University, Department of Economics in its series Staff General Research Papers with number 10252.

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Length: 20 pages
Date of creation: 27 Mar 2003
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Publication status: Published in Canadian Journal of Economics, May 2005, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 500-519.
Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:10252

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E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates

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  1. Jim Dolmas & Gregory W. Huffman & Mark A. Wynne, 1997. "Inequality, inflation, and central bank independence," Working Papers 97-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Robert E. Lucas, Jr., 2000. "Inflation and Welfare," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(2), pages 247-274, March.
  3. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross & Loayza, Norman, 2000. "Finance and the sources of growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 261-300. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Cukierman, Alex & Edwards, Sebastian & Tabellini, Guido, 1992. "Seigniorage and Political Instability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 537-55, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Costas Azariadis & Vincenzo Galasso, 1996. "Discretion, rules and volatility," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 65-74. [Downloadable!]
  6. Easterly, William & Fischer, Stanley, 2001. "Inflation and the Poor," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(2), pages 160-78, May.
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  7. Bryant, John & Wallace, Neil, 1984. "A Price Discrimination Analysis of Monetary Policy," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(2), pages 279-88, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Casey B. Mulligan & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2000. "Extensive Margins and the Demand for Money at Low Interest Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(5), pages 961-991, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Stefania Albanesi, . "Inflation and Inequality," Working Papers 199, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Bearse, P. & Glomm, G. & Janeba, E., 2000. "Why poor countries rely mostly on redistribution in-kind," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 463-481, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Erosa, Andres & Ventura, Gustavo, 2002. "On inflation as a regressive consumption tax," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 761-795, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Alesina, Alberto & Summers, Lawrence H, 1993. "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 151-62, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. James Bullard & Christopher J. Waller, 2002. "Central bank design in general equilibrium," Working Papers 1998-002, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Loewy, Michael B., 1988. "Equilibrium policy in an overlapping generations economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 485-499. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. 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.
  16. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Haslag, J., 2002. "On the use of the Inflation Tax when Non-Distortionary Taxes are Available," Staff General Research Papers 5247, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
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