How Does Monetary Policy Affect Welfare? Some New Estimates Using Data on Life Evaluation and Emotional Well-Being

Models on the optimal design of monetary policy typically rely on a social welfare loss function defined over inflation and unemployment. Our estimates of such a function use measures of two different dimensions of well-being that have been distinguished by recent research. The first is Cantril's ‘ladder-of-life' question. The second captures the emotional quality of everyday experiences. Our Gallup World Poll sample includes one million people in 138 nations over 12 years. Unemployment and inflation reduce well-being, although the ratio of the size of the effect varies dramatically between 2 and 4.6, depending upon which dimension of well-being is chosen