01929cas a2200253 a 4500 AALejournalIMF011908 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781475504163 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Walsh, James. Inflation and Income Inequality : Is Food Inflation Different? / James Walsh, Jiangyan Yu. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2012. 1 online resource (22 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students There is an extensive literature noting that high inflation can add to income inequality, and a parallel literature assessing the effect of rising food prices on the poor. This paper attempts to combine these strands by dividing inflation into food and nonfood inflation and assessing whether food inflation affects income inequality differently from nonfood inflation. In an international sample and a sample of Chinese provinces, nonfood inflation exacerbates income inequality while the role of food inflation is more mixed. In a sample of Indian states broken down into urban and rural areas, we find that nonfood inflation adds to income inequality in both areas, while food inflation has a neutral to positive effect on income inequality in rural areas, providing support for the theory that rural wages may respond elastically to food prices. Mode of access: Internet Yu, Jiangyan. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2012/147 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2012/147/001.2012.issue-147-en.xml IMF e-Library