O imposto inflacionário durante quatro hiperinflações

Abstract

The paper reviews some of the most common monetary models of inflation and offers a judgement on the relevance of such models based on the examination of the observed patterns of collection of the inflation tax. A comparison between the levels of revenue effectivelly collected as seigniorage and the inflation tax that could be collected under perfect antecipations, provides the bade scope for a test of the Predictions of the simplest version of the Cagan model. The evidence does not confirm such Predictions, though it is observed that the test does not apply to more elaborate versions of this same model. It is interesting to observe, however, that the evidence is not inconsistent with the hypothesis that inflation was governed by non-monetary forces and that the alone') supply was entirely passive- Other indications are provide to support this conjecture, such as the existence of monetary expansion in excess of the needs of government finance and the fact that the levels of Public expenditure appeared to adjust to the availability of funds generated by the inflation tax.