A New Approach to Inflation through the Joint Analysis of Economics Efficiency and Social Welfare. A case study: Argentina

Abstract

This paper points out the main e1ements under analysis in a study aimed at bringing out the relevant causes of inflation in each kind of economic structure. Thus, it stresses the necessity of a direct answer to questions like when, where, why and how an inflationary process is generated as well as its economic, political and social consequences. Further, it points out the necessity of analyzing the nature of inflation and its circumstances rather than contrasting structuralism vs. monetarism. Thus it seeks to specify the causes of inflation, their direction, intensity and interaction in a given type of economic and social structure. With that aim the ideas of economic efficiency and social welfare are introduced and applied to an interpretation of the Argentine case during the last hundred years.