An Heterogeneous-Agent New-Monetarist Model with an Application to Unemployment

We develop a New Monetarist model with expenditure and unemployment risks that generates equilibria with non-degenerate distribution of money holdings. Distributional effects can overturn key insights of the model with degenerate distributions, e.g., the value of money depends on the income distribution; a one-time money injection raises aggregate real balances in the short run –price adjustments look sluggish; anticipated inflation can raise output and welfare; there can be a long-run trade-o¤ between inflation and unemployment. Distributional effects also generate a quantitatively significant aggregate demand channel through which transfers financed with money creation can raise employment, and productivity shocks are amplified.