Further evidence on inflation targeting and income distribution

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  • IT and Inequality

    Accepted author manuscript, 404 KB, PDF document

    Embargo ends: 29/10/25

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This paper examines the effect of inflation targeting (IT) on income distribution in a panel of 70 countries. Employing panel regressions and a variety of propensity score matching methods, we find strong evidence that that incomes became more unequal in IT-adopting countries relative to countries that did not adopt IT. Panel regressions suggest that Gini coefficients increased by 0.25
to 0.57% and the share of income of the top 1% and 10% of households increased by 0.7% in IT adopter countries. Using propensity score matching methods, IT has been associated with a relative rise in Gini coefficients of about 1-2 percentage points, and a relative increase in the share of national income going to the top 1% and 10% of households by about 11-13 percentage points and
13-17 percentage points, respectively. The results are robust to changes in country sample and alternative estimation methodologies
Original languageEnglish
JournalSouthern Economic Journal
Early online date29 Oct 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 29 Oct 2024
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