Did the Fed’s quantitative easing make inequality worse?
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Did the Fed's quantitative easing make inequality worse?
Did the Fed's quantitative easing make inequality worse?

Inequality and monetary policy, conventional and unconventional

Distributional effects of monetary policy
A widely heard criticism of the Federal Reserve’s purchases of trillions of dollars in bonds, or quantitative easing, is that the Fed increased inequality by pushing up prices of stocks, bonds, and other assets already in the hands of the wealthy. Did it? What role does monetary policy play in influencing the distribution of income and wealth? Would alternative policies have had different distributional effects?
On June 1, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy presented three new papers that explore these questions. Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute looked at the channels through which conventional and unconventional monetary policies influence inequality. Matthias Doepke and Veronika Selezneva of Northwestern analyzed the impact of monetary policy on the distribution of wealth across households. Finally, Martin Beraja, Erik Hurst and Joe Vavra of the University of Chicago, and Andreas Fuster of the New York Federal Reserve examined whether regional differences should figure into monetary policy decisions that may affect inequality.
Responding to the papers and discussion was Brookings Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow Donald Kohn, Kevin Warsh of the Hoover Institution, McKinsey’s Susan Lund, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, and Jean Boivin of BlackRock.
Follow the discussion @BrookingsEcon or #Inequality.
Agenda
Welcome
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Inequality and monetary policy, conventional and unconventional
Josh Bivens
Director of Research - Economic Policy Institute
Distributional effects of monetary policy
Matthais Doepke
Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
Veronika Selezneva
Author - Graduate Student, Northwestern University
Regional heterogeneity and monetary policy
Erik Hurst
Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics - Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
Deputy Director - Becker Friedman Institute
Andreas Fuster
Author - Senior Economist, Capital Markets Function
Mark Zandi
Discussant - Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics
Panel discussion
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Kevin Warsh
Distinguished Visiting Fellow - Hoover Institution
Featured Papers
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Kevin Warsh
Distinguished Visiting Fellow - Hoover Institution
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