QUEUING AND THE PRICE-LEVEL UNDER REPRESSED INFLATION

A simple queuing mechanism is incorporated into a model of repressed inflation to reflect the experience of Soviet-type economies. Comparative statics are examined, with particular attention to the effects of a higher money price level. If wage rates are all the same-though thresholds may be heterogeneous in other respects-all households gain from a higher money price. With wage-rate inequality low-wage-rate households may lose. These conclusions are unaffected if the government transfers to each household an equal share of the additional net revenue it gains from the higher money price.