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Liquidity demand and welfare in a heterogeneous-agent economy

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  • Yi Wen

Abstract

This paper provides an analytically tractable general-equilibrium model of money demand with micro-foundations. The model is based on the incomplete-market model of Bewley (1980) where money serves as a store of value and provides liquidity to smooth consumption. The model is applied to study the effects of monetary policies. It is shown that heterogeneous liquidity demand can lead to sluggish movements in aggregate prices and positive responses from aggregate output to transitory money injections. However, permanent money growth can be extremely costly: With log utility function and an endogenously determined distribution of money balances that matches the household data, agents are willing to reduce consumption by 8% (or more) to avoid 10% annual inflation. The large welfare cost of inflation arises because inflation destroys the liquidity value and the buffer-stock function of money, thus raising the volatility of consumption for low-income households. The astonishingly large welfare cost of moderate inflation provides a justification for adopting a low inflation target by central banks and offers an explanation for the empirical relationship between inflation and social unrest in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Wen, 2010. "Liquidity demand and welfare in a heterogeneous-agent economy," Working Papers 2010-009, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2010-009
    DOI: 10.20955/wp.2010.009
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Chiu & Thorsten V. Koeppl, 2016. "Trading Dynamics with Adverse Selection and Search: Market Freeze, Intervention and Recovery," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(3), pages 969-1000.
    2. Yi Wen, 2012. "Liquidity and welfare," Working Papers 2012-037, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    3. Sunel, Enes, 2010. "On inflation, wealth inequality and welfare in emerging economies," MPRA Paper 25943, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Chen, Shu-heng & Chang, Chia-ling, 2012. "Interactions in the New Keynesian DSGE models: The Boltzmann-Gibbs machine and social networks approach," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 6, pages 1-32.
    5. Dressler, Scott, 2016. "A long-run, short-run, and politico-economic analysis of the welfare costs of inflation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB), pages 255-269.
    6. Sun, Hongfei, 2011. "Monetary and Fiscal Policies in a Heterogeneous-Agent Economy," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 273761, Queen's University - Department of Economics.
    7. Wen, Yi, 2015. "Money, liquidity and welfare," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-24.
    8. Angus C. Chu & Ching‐Chong Lai & Chih‐Hsing Liao, 2019. "A Tale of Two Growth Engines: Interactive Effects of Monetary Policy and Intellectual Property Rights," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(7), pages 2029-2052, October.
    9. Pengfei Wang & Yi Wen & Zhiwei Xu, 2012. "Two-way capital flows and global imbalances: a neoclassical approach," Working Papers 2012-016, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

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