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Monetary Policy in Economies with Little or No Money

Author

Listed:
  • Bennett T. McCallum
Abstract
The paper's arguments include: (1) Medium-of-exchange money will not disappear in the foreseeable future, although the quantity of base money may continue to decline. (2) In economies with very little money (e.g., no currency but bank settlement balances at the central bank), monetary policy will be conducted much as at present by activist adjustment of overnight interest rates. Operating procedures will be different, however, with payment of interest on reserves likely to become the norm. (3) In economies without any money there can be no monetary policy. The relevant notion of a general price level concerns some index of prices in terms of a medium of account. The liabilities of some official entity might serve as the medium of account, but there could be viable rivals if policy is poor. (4) A broad commodity-bundle monetary standard could be viable, even with a redemption medium, and there is scope for quantitative analysis of the properties of such a system. (5) The number of distinct national currencies may decline sharply, with the emergence of a small number of currency areas and floating exchange rates across these areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Bennett T. McCallum, 2003. "Monetary Policy in Economies with Little or No Money," NBER Working Papers 9838, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9838
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Willem Buiter, 2004. "A Small Corner of Intertemporal Public Finance - New Developments in Monetary Economics: 2 Ghosts, 2 Eccentricities, A Fallacy, A Mirage and A Mythos," NBER Working Papers 10524, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Dimitrios P Tsomocos & F.H. Capie & City UniversityG.E. Wood & Bank of England and City University, 2005. "Modelling Institutional Change in the Payments System, and its Implications for Monetary Policy," Economics Series Working Papers 2005-FE-01, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Duca, John V. & VanHoose, David D., 2004. "Recent developments in understanding the demand for money," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 247-272.
    4. Faugere, Christophe, 2010. "Macrofoundations for A (Near) 2% Inflation Target," MPRA Paper 23491, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 Jun 2010.
    5. Alexander Tobon & Nicolas Barbaroux, 2015. "Credit and Prices in Woodford's New Neoclassical Synthesis," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 4(1), pages 21-46, March.
    6. Colin Rogers, 2004. "Doing Without Money: A critical assessment of Woodford's analysis," Method and Hist of Econ Thought 0411001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Piet-Hein Van Eeghen, 2011. "Rethinking equilibrium conditions in macromonetary theory: A conceptually rigorous approach," Working Papers 255, Economic Research Southern Africa.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates

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