Monetary Policy and Inequality∗ Asger Lau Andersen (University of Copenhagen, CEBI and DFI) Niels Johannesen (University of Copenhagen, CEBI, DFI and CEPR) Mia Jørgensen (University of Copenhagen and CEBI) Jos´e-Luis Peydro´ (Imperial College, UPF-CREI-ICREA and CEPR) March 22, 2021 Abstract We analyze the distributional effects of monetary policy on income, wealth and con- sumption. We use administrative household-level data covering the entire population in Denmark over the period 1987-2014 and exploit a long-standing currency peg as a source of exogenous variation in monetary policy. We consistently find that the gains from softer monetary policy in terms of income, wealth and consumption are monotonically increas- ing in the ex ante income level. The distributional effects reflect systematic differences in exposure to the various channels of monetary policy, especially non-labor channels (e.g. leverage and assets). Our estimates imply that softer monetary policy increases income inequality by raising income shares at the top of the income distribution and reducing them at the bottom. JEL codes: E2, E4, E5, G1, G2, G5 Keywords: Monetary policy, Inequality, Household heterogeneity, Assets, Leverage ∗Asger Lau Andersen:
[email protected]; Niels Johannesen:
[email protected]; Mia Jørgensen:
[email protected]; Jos´e-LuisPeydr´o:
[email protected]. We thank Manuel Amador, Christina Arellano, Javier Bianchi, Martin Eichenbaum, Jordi Gal´ı,Veronica Guerrieri, Søren Hove Ravn, Pat Kehoe, Narayana Kocherlakota, Keith Kuester, Christian Moser, Elena Pastorino, Fabrizio Perri, Giacomo Ponzetto, Jaume Ventura, Gianluca Violante, Annette Vissing-Jørgensen as well as seminar audiences at the European University Institute, Federal Reserve Board, Danish Central Bank, Minneapolis Federal Reserve, Uni- versity of Copenhagen and Universitat Pompeu Fabra / CREI as well as participants at the Annual Conference of the Danish Financial Institute; Workshop on Recent Developments in Macroeconomic Modelling at CREI for valuable comments and suggestions.