Sectoral Money Demand and the Great Disinflation in the United States

Estimates of the welfare costs of inflation based on <link rid="b3">Bailey (1956) are typically computed using aggregate money demand models. Yet, the behavior of money demand may vary across sectors. Thus, the impact on welfare of inflation regime shifts may differ between households and firms. We specifically investigate the sectoral welfare implications of the shift from the Great Inflation to the present regime of low and stable inflation. For this purpose, we estimate different functional specifications of money demand for U.S. households and nonfinancial firms using flow-of-fund data covering four decades. We find that the benefits were significant for both sectors.