IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedbwp/99602.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income: Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Author

Abstract

We use Zip code–level Statistics of Income data from the Internal Revenue Service to measure the distribution of income within U.S. metropolitan areas from 1998 through 2019. Exploiting geographic variation in income distribution over time, we study how unanticipated changes in the monetary policy stance shape the subsequent dynamics of income inequality. The results show that monetary policy persistently affects labor income inequality and that these distributional effects are amplified significantly in weak local labor markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanni Favara & Francesca Loria & Egon Zakrajšek, 2025. "Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income: Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas," Working Papers 25-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:99602
    DOI: 10.29412/res.wp.2025.01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/research-department-working-paper/2025/monetary-policy-and-the-distribution-of-income-evidence-from-us-metropolitan-areas.aspx
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/Workingpapers/PDF/2025/WP2501.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.29412/res.wp.2025.01?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri & Gianluca Violante, 2020. "The Rise of US Earnings Inequality: Does the Cycle Drive the Trend?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 181-204, August.
    2. Kuttner, Kenneth N., 2001. "Monetary policy surprises and interest rates: Evidence from the Fed funds futures market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 523-544, June.
    3. James D. Hamilton, 2018. "Why You Should Never Use the Hodrick-Prescott Filter," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 831-843, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wilson, Matthew S., 2020. "A real business cycle model with money as a sunspot variable," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Choi, Sangyup & Willems, Tim & Yoo, Seung Yong, 2024. "Revisiting the monetary transmission mechanism through an industry-level differential approach," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    3. Canova, Fabio, 2020. "FAQ: How do I measure the Output gap?," CEPR Discussion Papers 14943, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Gric, Zuzana & Ehrenbergerova, Dominika & Hodula, Martin, 2022. "The power of sentiment: Irrational beliefs of households and consumer loan dynamics," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2024. "On the Hamilton-HP Filter Controversy: Evidence from German Business Cycles," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 20(3), pages 367-409, November.
    6. Michelle L. Barnes & N. Aaron Pancost, 2010. "The sensitivity of long-term interest rates to economic news: comment," Working Papers 10-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Kroencke, Tim A. & Schmeling, Maik & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2021. "The FOMC Risk Shift," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 21-39.
    8. Kurt Graden Lunsford, 2018. "Understanding the Aspects of Federal Reserve Forward Guidance," Working Papers (Old Series) 1815, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    9. Michael Ehrmann & Marcel Fratzscher & Roberto Rigobon, 2011. "Stocks, bonds, money markets and exchange rates: measuring international financial transmission," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 948-974, September.
    10. Kabundi, Alain & Poon, Aubrey & Wu, Ping, 2023. "A time-varying Phillips curve with global factors: Are global factors important?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Florian Eckert & Nina Mühlebach, 2021. "Global and Local Components of Output Gaps," KOF Working papers 21-497, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    12. Federico Di Pace & Christoph Görtz, 2021. "Monetary Policy, Sectoral Comovement and the Credit Channel," CESifo Working Paper Series 9142, CESifo.
    13. A. Anzuini & M. J. Lombardi & P. Pagano, 2013. "The Impact of Monetary Policy Shocks on Commodity Prices," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 9(3), pages 125-150, September.
    14. Bauer, Michael D. & Neely, Christopher J., 2014. "International channels of the Fed's unconventional monetary policy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 24-46.
    15. Rai, Anoop & Rojer, Guido & Susanna, Edirel, 2021. "Central bank transparency and market reaction in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    16. Juan Camilo Galvis Ciro & Juan Camilo Anzoátegui Zapata, 2018. "Announcements credibility and government securities: evidence from Colombia," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 278-282, February.
    17. Chen Gu & Ann Marie Hibbert, 2021. "Expectations and financial markets: Lessons from Brexit," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 279-299, May.
    18. Braun, Robin & Miranda-Agrippino, Silvia & Saha, Tuli, 2025. "Measuring monetary policy in the UK: The UK monetary policy event-study database," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Gustavo Adler & Carolina Osorio Buitron, 2020. "Tipping the scale? The workings of monetary policy through trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 744-759, August.
    20. Ranaldo, Angelo & Rossi, Enzo, 2010. "The reaction of asset markets to Swiss National Bank communication," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 486-503, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income inequality; distributional impact of monetary policy; high-frequency monetary policy surprises; local labor markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:99602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.