Arbeitspapier

Envy, guilt, and the Phillips curve

We incorporate inequity aversion into an otherwise standard New Keynesian dynamic equilibrium model with Calvo wage contracts and positive inflation. Workers with relatively low incomes experience envy, whereas those with relatively high incomes experience guilt. The former seek to raise their income, and the latter seek to reduce it. The greater the inflation rate, the greater the degree of wage dispersion under Calvo wage contracts, and thus the greater the degree of envy and guilt experienced by the workers. Since the envy effect is stronger than the guilt effect, according to the available empirical evidence, a rise in the inflation rate leads workers to supply more labor over the contract period, generating a significant positive long-run relation between inflation and output (and employment), for low inflation rates. This Phillips curve relation, together with an inefficient zero-inflation steady state, provides a rationale for a positive long-run inflation rate. Given standard calibrations, optimal monetary policy is associated with a long-run inflation rate around 2 percent.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Kiel Working Paper ; No. 1754

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy: General (includes Measurement and Data)
Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General
Thema
inflation
long-run Phillips curve
fairness
inequity aversion
Phillips-Kurve
Lohnverhandlungen
Gerechtigkeit
Neukeynesianische Makroökonomik
Dynamisches Gleichgewicht
Theorie

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Ahrens, Steffen
Snower, Dennis J.
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
(wo)
Kiel
(wann)
2012

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
12.07.2024, 13:20 MESZ

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Ahrens, Steffen
  • Snower, Dennis J.
  • Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)

Entstanden

  • 2012

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