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Money, Price Dispersion and Welfare

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  • Brian Peterson
  • Shouyong Shi

Abstract

We introduce heterogeneous preferences into a tractable model of monetary search to generate price dispersion, and then examine the effects of money growth on price dispersion and welfare. With buyers' search intensity fixed, we find that money growth increases the range of (real) prices and lowers welfare as agents shift more of their consumption to less desirable goods. When buyers' search intensity is endogenous, multiple equilibria are possible. In the equilibrium with the highest welfare level, money growth reduces welfare and increases the range of prices, while having ambiguous effects on search intensity. However, there can be a welfare-inferior equilibrium in which an increase in money growth increases search intensity, increases welfare, and reduces the range of prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Peterson & Shouyong Shi, 2006. "Money, Price Dispersion and Welfare," Working Papers tecipa-191, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-191
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Allen Head & Alok Kumar & Beverly Lapham, 2010. "Market Power, Price Adjustment, And Inflation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(1), pages 73-98, February.
    2. Richard Dutu & Benoit Julien & Ian King, 2012. "On the Welfare Gains of Price Dispersion," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5), pages 757-786, August.
    3. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
    4. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay & Rauh, Michael T., 2008. "Inflation, price dispersion, and market structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1187-1208, October.
    5. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "Viewpoint: A microfoundation of monetary economics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(3), pages 643-688, August.
    6. Rodrigo Cerda & Alvaro Silva & Rolf Lüders, 2021. "Price controls, hyperinflation, and the inflation–relative price variability relationship," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1725-1748, October.
    7. Branch, William & McGough, Bruce, 2016. "Heterogeneous beliefs and trading inefficiencies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 786-818.
    8. Hiranya K. Nath & Jayanta Sarkar, 2019. "Inflation and relative price variability: new evidence from survey-based measures of inflation expectations in Australia," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 2001-2024, June.
    9. Ahiabu, Stephen, 2006. "Inflation and the underground economy," MPRA Paper 763, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2006.
    10. Richard Ashley & Haichun Ye, 2012. "On the Granger causality between median inflation and price dispersion," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(32), pages 4221-4238, November.
    11. Ba M. Chu & Kim Huynh & David T. Jacho-Chávez & Oleksiy Kryvtsov, 2018. "On the Evolution of the United Kingdom Price Distributions," Staff Working Papers 18-25, Bank of Canada.
    12. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "A Microfoundation of Monetary Economics," Working Papers tecipa-211, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    13. Huberto M. Ennis, 2009. "Avoiding The Inflation Tax," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(2), pages 607-625, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Price dispersion; Search; Efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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