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Transaction Services, Inflation, and Welfare

Staff Report 241 | Published January 1, 1998

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Authors

Zvi Eckstein Reichman University
R. Anton Braun Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Transaction Services, Inflation, and Welfare

Abstract

This paper is motivated by empirical observations on the comovements of currency velocity, inflation, and the relative size of the credit services sector. We document these comovements and incorporate into a monetary growth model a credit services sector that provides services that help people economize on money. Our model makes two new contributions. First, we show that direct evidence on the appropriately defined credit service sector for the United States is consistent with the welfare cost measured using an estimated money demand schedule. Second, we provide welfare cost of inflation estimates that have some new features.




Published in: _Journal of Political Economy_ (Vol. 106, No. 6, December 1998, pp. 1274-1301) https://doi.org/10.1086/250047.