Changes in the inflation regime

Abstract

Typically inequality is not taken into account to assess the effects of policy changes over aggregate variables. We study the decline of expected inflation in a closed economy, and show that the efficiency effect of the decline is larger than what is usually reported even when inequality is considered. Here, the exogenous joint distribution of the households’ characteristics is an important factor behind the magnitude of the change of the aggregates in the economy. In addition, we show that the decline of inflation improves equality of welfare across households for any calibration that is consistent with the actual joint distribution of the households’ characteristics in a developed economy.