Inflation
Faramarz Tahmasebi
Abstract
Inflation influences the assets’ price and return. In order to maintain the money value, investors are willing to invest in assets which maintain their purchasing power and bring them good returns, when they encounter inflationary conditions. Some assets have this function, including stocks, gold, ...
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Inflation influences the assets’ price and return. In order to maintain the money value, investors are willing to invest in assets which maintain their purchasing power and bring them good returns, when they encounter inflationary conditions. Some assets have this function, including stocks, gold, currency, housing, land, etc. This study aimed to review the effect of inflation on investment in a combination of physical and financial assets. The main research question is how the optimal investment portfolio of the people changes with the change of the inflationary conditions and the escalation of the inflation rate. For this purpose, the optimal combination of assets such as dollar, gold coins, stocks, corporate bonds, housing, bank deposits and land was extracted in different inflationary conditions during the period of 1991-2021 using Markowitz's mean-variance model. The results indicated that assets are moved in the people’s investment portfolio due to the change in the inflationary conditions. Where the inflation rate was lower than its 30-year average, the best investment combination for people were corporate bonds, housing, stocks and bank deposits, respectively. With the escalating inflationary conditions and the inflation rate higher than the 30-year average, the optimal investment portfolio includes corporate bonds, gold coins, stocks and land, respectively. Comparing the composition of assets in the first to fourth quartiles of inflation represented that the corporate bonds, housing, stocks and gold are the first priorities of people's investment.
