[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bca/bocawp/15-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Essentiality of E-Money

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Chiu
  • Tsz-Nga Wong
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed the advances of e-money systems such as Bitcoin, PayPal and various forms of stored-value cards. This paper adopts a mechanism design approach to identify some essential features of different payment systems that implement and improve the constrained optimal resource allocation. We find that, compared to cash, emoney technologies allowing limited participation, limited transferability and non-zerosum transfers can help mitigate fundamental frictions and enhance social welfare, if they satisfy conditions in terms of parameters such as trade frequency and bargaining powers. An optimally designed e-money system exhibits realistic arrangements including nonlinear pricing, cross-subsidization and positive interchange fees even when the technologies incur no costs. Regulations such as a cap on interchange fees (à la the Dodd- Frank Act) can distort the optimal mechanism and reduce welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Chiu & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2015. "On the Essentiality of E-Money," Staff Working Papers 15-43, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:15-43
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/wp2015-43.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O. Cavalcanti, Ricardo de & Erosa, Andrés, 2008. "Efficient propagation of shocks and the optimal return on money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 128-148, September.
    2. Yiting Li, 2011. "Currency and Checking Deposits as Means of Payment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 403-417, April.
    3. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
    4. Andolfatto, David, 2010. "Essential interest-bearing money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(4), pages 1495-1507, July.
    5. Jonathan Chiu & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2014. "E-Money: Efficiency, Stability and Optimal Policy," Staff Working Papers 14-16, Bank of Canada.
    6. Marc Rysman, 2009. "The Economics of Two-Sided Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 125-143, Summer.
    7. Araujo, Luis & Camargo, Braz & Minetti, Raoul & Puzzello, Daniela, 2012. "The essentiality of money in environments with centralized trade," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 612-621.
    8. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 990-1029, June.
    9. Neil Wallace, 2014. "Optimal money creation in "pure currency" economies: a conjecture," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 259-274.
    10. Zhu Wang, 2012. "Debit card interchange fee regulation: some assessments and considerations," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 98(3Q), pages 159-182.
    11. Hu, Tai-Wei & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2013. "On the coexistence of money and higher-return assets and its social role," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(6), pages 2520-2560.
    12. Ricardo Cavalcanti & Ed Nosal, 2009. "Some benefits of cyclical monetary policy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 39(2), pages 195-216, May.
    13. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1998. "Money Is Memory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 232-251, August.
    14. Kocherlakota, Narayana & Wallace, Neil, 1998. "Incomplete Record-Keeping and Optimal Payment Arrangements," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 272-289, August.
    15. Kahn, Charles M. & Roberds, William, 2009. "Why pay? An introduction to payments economics," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-23, January.
    16. Oz Shy & Zhu Wang, 2011. "Why Do Payment Card Networks Charge Proportional Fees?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1575-1590, June.
    17. Lagos, Ricardo, 2010. "Some results on the optimality and implementation of the Friedman rule in the Search Theory of Money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(4), pages 1508-1524, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Chiu & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2014. "E-Money: Efficiency, Stability and Optimal Policy," Staff Working Papers 14-16, Bank of Canada.
    2. Cong, Lin William & Li, Ye & Wang, Neng, 2022. "Token-based platform finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 972-991.
    3. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Carli, Francesco & Uras, Burak, 2022. "Money, E-money, and Consumer Welfare," Other publications TiSEM d6c0389e-1036-4748-9040-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Charles M. Kahn & Francisco Rivadeneyra & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2018. "Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?," Staff Working Papers 18-58, Bank of Canada.
    6. Wong, Tsz-Nga, 2016. "Monetary exchange and the irreducible cost of inflation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 218-229.
    7. Janet Hua & Yu Zhu, 2021. "Monetary Policy Pass-Through with Central Bank Digital Currency," Staff Working Papers 21-10, Bank of Canada.
    8. Beata Szetela & Grzegorz Mentel & Stanislaw Gedek, 2016. "Dependency analysis between Bitcoin and selected global currencies," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 16, pages 133-144.
    9. Saroj Bhattarai & Mohammad Davoodalhosseini & Zhenning Zhao, 2024. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Transmission of Monetary Policy," Staff Working Papers 24-27, Bank of Canada.
    10. Luca Marchiori, 2018. "Monetary theory reversed: Virtual currency issuance and miners’ remuneration," BCL working papers 115, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    11. Chiu, Jonathan & Wong, Tsz-Nga, 2022. "Payments on digital platforms: Resiliency, interoperability and welfare," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    12. Walter Engert & Ben Fung, 2020. "A Uniform Currency in a Cashless Economy," Staff Analytical Notes 2020-7, Bank of Canada.
    13. Ben Fung & Hanna Halaburda, 2016. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Framework for Assessing Why and How," Discussion Papers 16-22, Bank of Canada.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Chiu & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2015. "On the Essentiality of E-Money," Staff Working Papers 15-43, Bank of Canada.
    2. Hu, Tai-Wei & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2013. "On the coexistence of money and higher-return assets and its social role," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(6), pages 2520-2560.
    3. Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2012. "The cost of inflation: A mechanism design approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(3), pages 1261-1279.
    4. Pedro Gomis-Porqueras & Daniel Sanches, 2013. "Optimal Monetary Policy in a Model of Money and Credit," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(4), pages 701-730, June.
    5. Krishna, R. Vijay & Leukhina, Oksana, 2019. "On the benefits of currency reform," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 81-95.
    6. Zachary Bethune & Tai-Wei Hu & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2018. "Optimal Credit Cycles," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 27, pages 231-245, January.
    7. Chiu, Jonathan & Wong, Tsz-Nga, 2022. "Payments on digital platforms: Resiliency, interoperability and welfare," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    9. Huber, Samuel & Kim, Jaehong, 2017. "On the optimal quantity of liquid bonds," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 184-200.
    10. Burdett, Kenneth & Trejos, Alberto & Wright, Randall, 2017. "A new suggestion for simplifying the theory of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 423-450.
    11. Berentsen, Aleksander & Huber, Samuel & Marchesiani, Alessandro, 2016. "The societal benefit of a financial transaction tax," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 303-323.
    12. Guilherme Carmona, 2021. "On the optimality of monetary trading," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(3), pages 1121-1160, April.
    13. Chao Gu & Fabrizio Mattesini & Randall Wright, 2016. "Money and Credit Redux," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1-32, January.
    14. Aleksander Berentsen & Alessandro Marchesiani & Christopher Waller, 2014. "Floor Systems for Implementing Monetary Policy: Some Unpleasant Fiscal Arithmetic," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(3), pages 523-542, July.
    15. Aleksander Berentsen & Alessandro Marchesiani & Christopher J. Waller, 2010. "Channel systems: why is there a positive spread?," IEW - Working Papers 517, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    16. Thomas Wiseman, 2015. "A Note on the Essentiality of Money under Limited Memory," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 881-893, October.
    17. Araujo, Luis & Camargo, Braz, 2015. "Limited monitoring and the essentiality of money," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 32-37.
    18. Lotz, Sébastien & Zhang, Cathy, 2016. "Money and credit as means of payment: A new monetarist approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 68-100.
    19. Zhixiu Yu, 2023. "On the Coexistence of Cryptocurrency and Fiat Money," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 49, pages 147-180, July.
    20. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2016. "Introduction to the symposium issue on money and liquidity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-9.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank notes; E-Money; Payment clearing and settlement systems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:15-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bocgvca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.