Estimating the welfare gains from ending inflation requires taking a stand on the shape of the money demand function. A form of the money demand function that seems to describe U.S. experience - known in technical jargon as the double log form - seems to work well in countries and times where...

In this article, James B. Bullard and Alvin L. Marty begin by summarizing some popular arguments for positive steady-state rates of inflation based on the idea that a certain amount of inflation stabilizes economic performance. Then, synthesizing a number of disparate results in a single...