La inflación a lo largo de la vida

Abstract

A few generations ago, a child could receive a weekly allowance of 25 pesetas. Over the years, it in-creased to 100 pesetas, and today it can be 1 or 2 euros. Today, teenagers have experienced about45 per cent consumer price inflation, and 21-year-olds have experienced almost 60 per cent inflation.The following activity has been carried out in the subject “Introduction to Economics”, which is taught inthe first year of the Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. The objective is to demonstrate that “whenprices are stable, people can have money for transactions without worrying about inflation eating intothe real value of their money balances” (Ben Bernanke; former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve).To do this, they are taught how to use FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), the Federal Reserve’sfree economic data website to measure changes in the cost of living over a lifetime. The students haveobserved the evolution of the price level throughout their lives, not only in Spain, but also in differentcountries around the world. Following simple instructions, they have located the general level of con-sumer prices in their country of birth as it existed at the time they were born. They then compared thatlevel with the current level to see how prices have risen over their lifetime. FRED’s ability to creategraphs with a customised index scale allows them to visualise the increase in prices over their lifetime.In conclusion, students realise that inflation is a “real” phenomenon and that the value of money chang-es over time. In addition, they improve their foreign language competence as all the information usedis in English.