Inflation, market structure, and innovation-driven growth with distinct cash constraints

This article explores the effects of monetary policy (inflation) in a Schumpeterian growth model with an endogenous market structure and distinct cash (or cash-in-advance, CIA) constraints on consumption, production, and two types of R&D investment—quality-improving and variety-expanding R&D. We show that the relationship between inflation and growth is negative if quality-improving R&D (incumbent) is subject to the CIA constraint, but positive if variety-expanding R&D (entrant) is subject to the CIA constraint. Inflation has no effect on growth as consumption or production is subject to the CIA constraint. In addition, the firm size may either increase or decrease in response to inflation depending on which type of R&D is constrained by cash. With all CIA constraints properly imposed, a likely scenario in our numerical analysis shows that a rise in inflation leads the growth rate to exhibit a decrease in the short run but an increase in the long run. Moreover, our welfare analysis shows that Friedman’s rule, in general, is not socially optimal.