Despite extensive econometric evidence, the research literature has been unable to draw firm conclusions regarding the effect of inflation on income inequality. In this paper, we apply meta-regression methods to a novel data set of 1767 estimates reported in 124 published studies that investigate the effect of inflation on income inequality. We distinguish between estimates that examine the effect of inflation on levels of income inequality and those that examine the effect of inflation on differences of income inequality. For level estimates, not controlling for moderator variables points to mild publication bias in favor of positive estimates (i.e., the current literature favors publishing studies that find that inflation increases income inequality), but publication selectivity does not hold once we control for a set of moderator variables. For difference estimates, mild publication bias in favor of negative estimates is found only once we control for moderator variables. In addition, our results suggest that inflation has a (small-to-moderate) inequality increasing effect for both level and difference estimates. Furthermore, we show that several factors influence reported estimates, including researcher choices concerning the measurement of inflation and inequality, the characteristics of data and estimation methods, and controlling for other components of inequality.

尽管有大量的计量经济学证据，研究文献仍无法就通货膨胀对收入不平等的影响得出明确的结论。在本文中，我们将元回归方法应用于 124 项已发表研究中报告的 1767 项估计值的新数据集，这些研究调查了通货膨胀对收入不平等的影响。我们区分了考察通货膨胀对收入不平等水平影响的估计和考察通货膨胀对收入不平等差异影响的估计。对于水平估计，不控制调节变量表明有轻微的出版偏见，有利于积极的估计（即，当前的文献有利于发表发现通货膨胀加剧收入不平等的研究），但一旦我们控制了一组调节变量。对于差异估计，只有在我们控制调节变量后，才会发现有利于负面估计的轻微发表偏差。此外，我们的结果表明，通货膨胀对水平和差异估计都有（小到中等）不平等增加的影响。此外，我们还表明，有几个因素影响报告的估计，包括研究人员对通货膨胀和不平等衡量的选择、数据和估计方法的特征以及对不平等其他组成部分的控制。