Inflation and the poor

Using polling data for 31,869 households in thirty-eight countries and allo wing for country effects, we shout that the poor are more likely than the r ich to mention inflation as a top national concern. This result survives se veral robustness checks. We also find direct measures of improvements in we ll-being of the poor-the change in their share in national income, the perc ent decline in poverty, and the percent change in the real minimum wage-to be negatively correlated with inflation in pooled cross-country samples.