Jealousy and monetary policy

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of jealousy for the welfare effects of monetary policy. Jealousy implies that consumption is like pollution: overconsumption may occur because households do not internalize the costs of their consumption to others. This externality opens the door for a beneficial monetary policy intervention. I show that the welfare effects of monetary policy depend on jealousy, the monopolistic distortion and the utility of real balances. If households are “too jealous,” a rise in the money supply reduces welfare by increasing consumption that is already inefficiently high.