← Search

Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 3 No. 3 1994

Inflationary Policy and Welfare with Limited Credit Markets

Peter N. Ireland

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Abstract

This paper considers the costs and benefits of inflation using a stochastic version of Townsend′s turnpike model in which agents of each type are allowed to remain at a trading post for multiple periods. Numerical results show that moderate rates of inflation can be welfare-improving, but only when private credit markets are extremely limited. More generally, the existence of private credit markets curtails the ability of inflationary policy to do both harm and good. In addition, the welfare consequences of inflation depend on how much information about the economy the government has access to when implementing its policies. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D52, E31.

DOI
10.1006/jfin.1994.1006
Volume
3
Issue
3
Pages
245-271
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite