Inflation and Redistribution: Research on the Origins and Implications of Money as a Unit of Account

摘要提案标题：通货膨胀和再分配：研究货币作为会计单位的起源和含义提案编号：SES -1260961主要研究者：Doepke，Matthias在发达经济体中，指定未来付款的资产和负债（如抵押贷款，贷款，存款和政府债务）通常以当地货币的固定名义单位计价。例如，美国政府债券的所有者将获得一系列利息支付和固定美元本金偿还。同样，美国固定利率抵押贷款借款人也欠一系列以美元计算的固定付款。使用货币作为资产和负债的记账单位很重要，因为它意味着记账单位价值的意外变化（即，通货膨胀或通货紧缩）导致财富在借贷者之间重新分配。例如，无法预料的通货膨胀会降低所有名义资产和负债的真实的价值，这意味着贷款人会损失，而借款人会获得收益。本项目从理论和定量的角度探讨货币作为资产和负债的记账单位的作用的起源和影响。该研究有四个不同的组成部分。第一部分是理论性的，旨在解释为什么经济主体选择使用货币作为资产和负债的记账单位（而不是将未来支付与通货膨胀挂钩）。这种理论也可以用来理解货币作为记账单位的历史，政府债务在促进货币作为统一记账单位的使用中的作用，以及货币联盟的经济学。第二部分考察了再分配效应对通货膨胀的政治经济学的作用，从而有助于通货膨胀的实证理论。第三部分考虑美国近期通胀上升的可能性，并使用具有丰富生命周期结构的量化一般均衡模型来评估这种通胀冲击对宏观经济总量和福利的影响。该模型考虑到金融约束，并有一个明确的住房市场，使通货膨胀和真实的房地产价格之间的相互作用也可以检查。研究的这一部分将加强我们对利用通货膨胀侵蚀政府债务的诱惑以及这种政策的分配和宏观经济影响的理解。最后一部分的研究重点是在美国的通货紧缩事件在20世纪80年代，并使用面板数据从消费者金融调查（SCF）记录的影响，意外通缩对家庭财富。由于可以构建SCF面板中家庭的个人抵押贷款历史，本研究将深入了解稳定政策在个人家庭层面的影响，并加深我们对这些政策的宏观经济影响的理解。总之，本项目加深了我们对货币政策及其后果以及货币制度和货币体系设计的理解。对最优货币区的影响将有助于澄清统一货币的成本和收益，由于欧元区的债务危机，这个问题最近受到了很多关注。该提案的政治经济方面将有助于澄清经济体制特征之间的反馈，如养老金制度的设计和货币政策。

Abstract Proposal Title: Inflation and Redistribution: Research on the Origins and Implications of Money as a Unit of AccountProposal Number: SES - 1260961Principal Investigator: Doepke, MatthiasIn advanced economies, assets and liabilities that specify future payments (such as mortgages, loans, deposits, and government debt) are usually denominated in fixed nominal units of the local currency. For example, the owner of a U.S. government bond stands to receive a series of interest payments and a principal repayment in fixed dollar terms. Similarly, U.S. fixed-rate mortgage borrowers owe a series of payments that are fixed in dollar terms as well. The use of money as a unit of account for assets and liabilities matters, because it implies that unanticipated changes in the value of the unit of account (i.e., inflation or deflation) lead to wealth redistribution between borrowers and lenders. For example, unanticipated inflation lowers the real value of all nominal assets and liabilities, implying that lenders lose and borrowers gain.The project examines the origins and implications of money's role as a unit of account for assets and liabilities from theoretical and quantitative perspectives. The research has four different components. The first component is theoretical, and aims to explain why economic agents choose to use money as the unit of account for assets and liabilities (as opposed to, say, indexing future payments to inflation). A theory of this kind can also be used to understand the history of the use of money as a unit of account, the role of government debt in promoting the use of money a unified unit of account, and the economics of currency unions. The second component examines the role of redistribution effects for the political economy of inflation, and thereby contributes to a positive theory of inflation. The third component considers the possibility of higher inflation in the United States in the near future, and uses a quantitative general equilibrium model with a rich life-cycle structure to assess the effects of such an inflation shock on macroeconomic aggregates and welfare. The model allows for financial constraints and has an explicit housing market, so that the interaction between inflation and real estate prices can be examined as well. This component of the research will enhance our understanding of the temptation to use inflation to erode government debt, as well as the distributional and macroeconomic implications of such a policy. The last component of the proposed research focuses on the disinflation episode in the United States during the 1980s, and uses panel data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to document the impact of surprise deflation on household wealth. Given that individual mortgage histories can be constructed for households in the SCF panel, this research will provide insights into the impact of stabilization policies at the level of individual households, and enhance our understanding of the wider macroeconomic effects of such policies.In sum, the project deepens our understanding of monetary policy and its consequences, as well as the design of monetary institutions and currency systems. The implications for optimal currency areas will help clarify the costs and benefits of a unified currency, an issue which recently has received a lot of attention due to the debt crisis in the Euro zone. The political-economy aspect of the proposal will help clarify the feedback between institutional features of an economy such as the design of the pension system and monetary policy.