THE CLASS CONTENT OF PREFERENCES TOWARDS ANTI-INFLATION AND ANTI-UNEMPLOYMENT POLICIES

[Fumesucker]

http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/inflation/jayadev_paper4.pdf

Arjun Jayadev | Department of Economics | University of Massachusetts, Boston | 29th July 2006

This paper assesses class based preferences towards anti-inflationary and anti-unemployment policy. Using a consistent cross-country social survey, I find that the working class broadly defined, and those with lower occupational skill and status are more likely to prioritize combating unemployment rather than inflation. The result that the working class is less ‘relatively inflation averse’ is robust to the inclusion of several plausible controls. In addition, I find that those respondents who exhibit a broadly pro-business and anti-redistributionary attitude are more relatively inflation averse. The finding that inflation and unemployment aversion have a distinct class character has implications for current debates on the implications of macroeconomic policies such as inflation targeting.

[rfranklin]

1. That's a tough one to figure out

People who need jobs to live on want jobs. People who live on capital want to avoid inflation. I wouldn't say it is counterintuitive.

[Fumesucker]

2. Yeah, but so many things are indeed counterintuitive..

And look at the way the working class whites in particular vote in the USA, that's fairly counterintuitive.

It's easy to assume things, more difficult to actually prove them.

[rucky]

4. Unless we're talking about Wal-Mart intution:

"Save Money, Live Better" should really be "Save Money, Don't Buy" & "Earn Money, Live Better"

[Hannah Bell]

5. they're not inflation-averse when it comes to their own salaries. biggest inflation recently

has been in top exec pay.

[Warpy]

6. I'm living on capital right now

meaning I'm living on interest and dividends. Higher employment means more customers and that means higher profit and higher dividends. Returning to unacceptable levels of inflation means higher interest.

Any investor who doesn't get that part is probably not going to hang onto his money very long.

Personally, I'm hoping for higher employment at living wages. That's when the country as a whole does the best, with plenty of money around for reinvestment in improved technology and new startup industries happening as demand appears.

Trying to work from the top down never works, at all. You have to scrape it off the very top and use it to invest in the country. That works.

[blindpig]

3. Speaks volumes.....

about the governments handling of the economic crisis, purely upper class.

Like the old song sez, "which side are you on?". It's pretty obvious which side this administration is on.