The Redistributive Politics of Monetary Policy
43 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2020 Last revised: 7 Dec 2021
Date Written: November 9, 2020
Abstract
Monetary policy and institutions are far from exempt from political influences. In this paper, we analyze monetary institutions not as being run by either benevolent technocrats or a wealth maximizing Leviathan but as being the outcome of competition between interest groups trying to capture wealth transfers. We argue that while interest groups gaining from specific monetary policies and institutions can easily identify themselves, losers often cannot. As a result, losers have a harder time fighting back and both the organization of money production and monetary policy are shaped by political competition between rent-seekers. We use our framework to analyze modern developments in monetary policies and institutions, namely 1) the Fed's reaction to the 2007 financial crisis, 2) the Fed's reaction to the COVID crisis, 3) the establishment and development of the Euro.
Keywords: Monetary policy, Public Choice
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