Information technology and the welfare cost of anticipated inflation

Abstract

I numerically study inflation’s welfare cost in a model in which there are two ways of mediating trade: money and information technology (IT), a probabilistically updated public record of agents’ histories. I find that a higher updating probability either brings the incentive-constrained output closer to its unconstrained value, or triggers the abandonment of money. In the first case the higher updating probability induces both higher inflation and a lower welfare cost of inflation. In the second case, welfare is higher than with the lower updating probability, but inflation’s welfare cost measured in a standard way is also higher.