| Authors | R.M.W.J. Beetsma, F. van der Ploeg |
| Title | Does inequality cause inflation? The political economy of inflation, taxation and government debt |
| Publisher | University of Amsterdam (UvA) - University of Tilburg |
| Place | Amsterdam, Tilburg |
| Year | 1992 |
| Title series | CEPR Discussion Paper |
| Series number | 741 |
| Faculty | Faculty of Economics and Business |
| Institute/dept. | FEB: Research Institute in Economics and Econometrics Amsterdam (RESAM) |
| Keywords | Foreign exchange; Monetary policy |
| Abstract | A democratic society in which the distribution of wealth is unequal elects political parties which tend to represent the interests of the poor. The clientele of such governments favor unanticipated inflation taxes to erode the real value of debt service and redistribute income from the rich to the poor. Consequently, inequality sows the seeds for inflation. Regressions confirm the empirical predictions of the model and show a strong positive relationship between the inflation rate and inequality, for a cross-section of democratic countries. |
| Document type | Report |
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