The impact of inflation on income inequality: the role of institutional quality

The inflation rate has ambiguous effects on income inequality, implying that the effects could be affected by another variable. This paper examines the implication of institutional quality on the relationship between inflation and income inequality. The two-step system generalized method of moment is applied to the unbalanced panel dataset which consists of 4-year non-overlapping average data from 1987 to 2014 for 65 developed and developing countries. The coefficients of inflation and institutional quality indicate that an increase in inflation will worsen income inequality, while better institutional quality will improve income inequality. Meanwhile, the effect of inflation will be mitigated by better institutional quality, suggesting the existence of a mediating effect from institutional quality. On the other hand, the marginal effects suggest that inflation and institutional quality will reduce income inequality. Thus, policymakers are advised to improve the institutional quality as it has a direct as well as an indirect impact on income inequality via its interaction with inflation.