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Why Are Illiquid Households Affected More by Inflation?
Surprise inflation can hit illiquid households harder because they can’t easily offset real losses in short-term assets with real gains in long-term liabilities.
Working Paper
Nominal Maturity Mismatch and the Liquidity Cost of Inflation
We document a liquidity channel through which unexpected inflation generates substantial welfare losses. Household balance sheets are nominal maturity mismatched: nominal liabilities have a longer duration than nominal assets. Due to this mismatch, losses from unexpected inflation are concentrated over short time horizons, while gains are spread out over the longer run. This has negative effects on liquidity-constrained households, who cannot easily borrow against their future gains. We quantify the importance of the liquidity channel and show that, for households in the lower half of the ...