This paper examines the welfare effects of mitigating the costs of inflation. In a simple model where money reduces transaction costs, a fall in the costs of inflation is equivalent to financial innovation. This can be caused by paying interest on deposits, indexing money, or “dollarizing.”...

This paper studies the effect of inflation on the operation of financial markets, and shows how the ability of financial intermediaries to distinguish among heterogenous firms is reduced as inflation rises. This point is illustrated by presenting a simple model where inflation affects firms’...

Persistent inflation and slow stabilization are usually the result of policy accommodation resorted to in an attempt to avoid the recessionary costs of a sharp reduction of inflation. This paper reviews three explanations for why policymakers, despite their dislike of inflation, may nevertheless...