Inflation Inequality and Its Effects on the Distribution of the Expenditure of Occupational Groups in Iran

Inflation inequality indicates the encounter of households with different consumption expenditure, with various inflation rates. The present article is composed of two main sections. The first section deals with the calculation of inflation inequality, and the second section concerns the effect of this inequality on the distribution of expenditure of occupational groups. To examine the presence of inequality, three methods of plutocratic gap, descriptive analysis of the CIP of households (skewness coefficient), and inflation in socio-economic groups (the occupational group of householders) are utilized. In order to achieve a more accurate analysis of the inflation situation and the effects of changes in current price index in Iran, the effects of the consumer price index of each occupational group on the share of the expenditures of the same group will be studied in the next section. In fact, the present article aims to distinguish between the classes which suffer from inflation and the classes which benefit from it, rather than examine the effects of inflation on inequality as a whole. Households in urban areas of Iran are divided, based on the occupational group that the householder belongs to. The findings of the study indicate that there is an inflation inequality between households in different occupational groups, in different periods of time; however, this trend oscillates in different periods of time. On average, in each period, managers, high-ranking officials and specialists experience less inflation, and the effect of this inflation (increase in price index) on groups’ expenditure share of the expenditures of the whole society has been decreasing. In some groups, inflation causes an increase in the value of assets, and consequently the wealth of these people increases, in a way that the increase in the income is bigger than the increase in the expenditure. Groups which lack such assets only experience an increase in their expenditure, and their income does not increase in line with their expenditure. Therefore, the groups with a low income and a small wealth suffer from inflation. In the present study, unskilled workers constitute a group which faces the highest level of inflation, and whose share of consumption expenditure increases as a result of inflation in this period as well.