Inflação: origens e abordagens teóricas

Abstract

Historically, inflation has been a reason for controversy between economists, especially talking about the role of money in this process. Therefore, the research aims to identify the causes of inflation in the conventional/neoclassical and post-keynesian theoretical approaches as well as to comprehend its respective suggestions against the rise of general price-level. It has been identified that the conventional perspective has been historically connected to the Quantity Theory of Money and it understands that inflation is a monetary phenomenon that implies in demand excess. To the post-keynesian analysis the inflationary outbreaks arise in general in the economy supply structure, being possible to identify seven origins. The motive of this distinctive comprehension occurs mostly in the admission - or not - of monetary neutrality. Understanding the money as neutral, the neoclassical theoricals recommend the rise of interest rates to fight inflation. On the other hand, the post-keynesians - contrary to the money neutrality - recommend specific instruments to each kind of inflation and understand the rise of interest rates as a generalized medicine to a local symptom, thus limiting the economy's potential growth.