The redistributional impact of inflation in Greece

Theo Mitrakos and Stauros Zografakis
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Stauros Zografakis: University of Patras

Economic Bulletin, 2005, issue 24, 45-82

Abstract: Inflation is often assumed to affect all people in the same way. However, differences in spending patterns across households and differences in price changes across goods and services lead to a different inflation rate for each household. In this paper, we estimate inflation rates for various population groups in Greece during the period 1999-2004 as well as the causes of differences between them. Our results suggest that these differences are considerable and the most of them can be traced to changes in the relative prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages, housing, and alcoholic beverages & tobacco. We find that socially-sensitive population groups such as pensioners, the unemployed, the economically weak and more generally individuals facing a relatively high risk of poverty suffer disproportionately from inflation. Moreover, the distributional impact of price changes seems to have a negative effect on various inequality and poverty indices.

Keywords: inflation; income redistribution; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D31 E31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bog:econbl:y:2005:i:24:p:45-82

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