Monetary Policy and Inequality

The Pasinetti Index

Sylvio Antonio Kappes, Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University, Canada)

$398.95 $319.42

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Routledge
03 November 2025

Monetary economics; Labour economics; Development economics; Political economy

This book explores the relationship between monetary policy and income (and wealth) distribution, a growing area of research in post-Keynesian and heterodox economics today. The interest actually goes back at least to Keynes, who, in his A Tract on Monetary Reform, discusses the effects of interest rates on income distribution—what has been called a ‘rentier-first’ monetary policy. This led Keynes, in the General Theory, to advocate for what he calls ‘the euthanasia of the rentier.’ For Keynes, monetary policy should be set at a low enough rate of interest as to maximize our collective ability to attain full employment. Joan Robinson further developed these ideas in her Accumulation of Capital (1956), examining the distributive nature of interest rates.

Within contemporary heterodox economics, this topic gained renewed attention in the late 1980s through influential papers by prominent post-Keynesians who highlighted concerns about how interest rate changes affect functional income distribution. This perspective places social class dynamics and class conflict at the center of monetary policy debates, challenging mainstream approaches that often overlook distributional consequences.

This book is an invaluable read for economics researchers, graduate students, and policy analysts of monetary theory, macroeconomics, political economy, income inequality, financial economics, and heterodox economic approaches.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Review of Political Economy.

Edited by: Sylvio Antonio Kappes, Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University, Canada)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 246mm, Width: 174mm,
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781041173625
ISBN 10: 1041173628
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 03 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction - Monetary Policy and Income Distribution: The Pasinetti Index 1. Where do the Pasinetti Rule and the Pasinetti Index Come from? 2. Distributional Regimes in the US — The Pasinetti Index and the Monetary Policy Effects on Income Distribution 3. Monetary Policy and the Pasinetti Index: A Stock Flow Model for Latin American Economies 4. Revisiting the Pasinetti Index: Understanding Its Cyclical and Long-Term Features and Its Important Implications for Macroeconomic Policy 5. The Distributive Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policies: Old and New 6. The Pasinetti Index and the Rise of Inequality in the Age of Unconventional Monetary Policy in Japan 7. Monetary Policy and Income Distribution: Some Reflections on the Pasinetti Rule

Sylvio Antonio Kappes is Assistant Professor of Macroeconomics at the Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. He is the co-editor of the Elgar Series on Central Banking and Monetary Policy, together with Louis-Philippe Rochon and Guillaume Vallet. He is the co-editor of the Review of Political Economy. He also sits on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of Political Economy and Advances in Economics Education. He is the co-director of the Monetary Policy Institute. Louis-Philippe Rochon is Full Professor of Economics at Laurentian University, Canada. He is the current editor-in-chief of the Review of Political Economy and the founder (now Editor Emeritus) of the Review of Keynesian Economics. He sits on the editorial board of 14 other journals. He has published widely in several journals on monetary policy and post-Keynesian economics. He has been Visiting Professor in over 10 countries. He is the co-director of the Monetary Policy Institute.