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A Monetary-Fiscal Theory of Sudden Inflations

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Bassetto
  • David S Miller

Abstract

This article posits an information channel as an explanation for sudden inflations. Households saving via nominal government bonds face a choice whether to acquire costly information about future government surpluses. They trade off the cost of acquiring information about the surpluses that back bond repayment against the benefit of a more informed saving decision. Through the information channel, small changes in the economic environment can trigger large responses in consumer behavior and prices. This setting explains why there can be long stretches of time during which government surpluses have large movements with little inflation response; then at some point, something snaps, and a sudden inflation takes off that is strongly responsive to incoming fiscal news.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Bassetto & David S Miller, 2025. "A Monetary-Fiscal Theory of Sudden Inflations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 140(3), pages 1959-2000.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:140:y:2025:i:3:p:1959-2000.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/qje/qjaf012
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Nicolas Caramp & Dejanir Silva, 2023. "Fiscal Policy and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 716-746, December.
    3. Giancarlo Corsetti & Bartosz Maćkowiak, 2024. "Gambling to Preserve Price (and Fiscal) Stability," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(1), pages 32-57, March.
    4. Marco Lorusso & Francesco Ravazzolo & Claudia Udroiu, 2024. "Fiscal stimuli: Monetary versus Fiscal Financing," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS105, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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