Inflation and capital accumulation under a finite horizon

The effect of inflation on demand for capital and the aggregate capital-labor ratio is investigated in a finite-horizon utility-maximization model. It is shown that deriving saving and asset choice decisions from utility maximization does not in itself lead to superneutrality (independence of steady-state capital-labor ratio from the rate of monetary growth) as in the work of Sidrauski, and that a finite horizon is crucial in explaining this difference. It is further shown that it is possible under very general conditions to show that increases in the rate of inflation will increase the aggregate capital-labor ratio, allowing us to extend the Mundell-Tobin effect to a wider class of models.