Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
家庭收入不平等与最优趋势通胀
Household Income Inequality and Optimal Trend Inflation
摘要
This paper studies the optimal inflation target in a tractable heterogeneous agent New Keynesian (THANK) model with an occasionally binding zero lower bound, incorporating income inequality, income risk, and countercyclical fiscal policy. We analytically characterize how cyclical and long-run inequality, income risk, and fiscal policy shape the welfare trade-off of trend inflation across households. Greater cyclical inequality and income risk increase the marginal benefits of inflation, especially for hand-to-mouth (HtM) households, while long-run inequality reduces marginal benefits. Quantitatively, income inequality and income risk modestly raise the utilitarian optimal inflation rate relative to the representative agent benchmark. We further show that countercyclical fiscal policies lower the marginal benefit of inflation for all households and reduce the optimal inflation target. Finally, adding wealth inequality in the form of private or government debt, in addition to income inequality, raises the optimal inflation target.
中文摘要
本文在一个具有偶尔约束零下限的可处理异质性代理人新凯恩斯（THANK）模型中，研究了最优通胀目标，该模型纳入了收入不平等、收入风险及逆周期财政政策。我们从理论上刻画了周期性及长期不平等、收入风险与财政政策如何影响跨家庭趋势通胀的福利权衡。更大的周期性不平等和收入风险增加了通胀的边际收益，尤其是对于手到口（HtM）家庭而言，而长期不平等则降低了边际收益。在量化上，相对于代表性代理人基准，收入不平等和收入风险适度提高了功利主义最优通胀率。我们进一步表明，逆周期财政政策降低了所有家庭通胀的边际收益，并减少了最优通胀目标。最后，在收入不平等之外，加入以私人或政府债务形式存在的财富不平等，会提高最优通胀目标。