IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revaec/v37y2024i1d10.1007_s11138-022-00584-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soft monetary constraint and shortage in the European sovereign debt economy

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Magnin

    (University of Paris City)

  • Nikolay Nenovsky

    (University of Picardie Jules Verne
    SU Higher School of Economics
    RUDN)

Abstract

From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2020, the monetary base in the euro area grew by 330%, the money supply by 61% and inflation measured by the consumer price index - only 17%. Interest rates are around zero and negative, inflation is low, and we often register deflation. This discrepancy between the growth of money and prices has not only practical dimensions for the ECB and FED monetary policy, but also a theoretical significance. In this contribution, we propose an interpretation of these trends on the basis of concepts developed by J. Kornai in his Economics of Shortage analysis, from which we derive our insights on the sovereign debt market situation in European countries. J. Kornai was an unclassifiable economist whose work reflected to some extent the influence of the Austrian School of economics. The point here is not to transpose Kornai’s shortage economy analysis to European capitalist economies, but to show that similar phenomena are appearing today in a different institutional context.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Magnin & Nikolay Nenovsky, 2024. "Soft monetary constraint and shortage in the European sovereign debt economy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 55-80, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:37:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11138-022-00584-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-022-00584-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11138-022-00584-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11138-022-00584-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lalouette, Laure & Zamora-Pérez, Alejandro & Rusu, Codruta & Bartzsch, Nikolaus & Politronacci, Emmanuelle & Delmas, Martial & Rua, António & Brandi, Marco & Naksi, Martti, 2021. "Foreign demand for euro banknotes," Occasional Paper Series 253, European Central Bank.
    2. Wladimir Andreff, 2021. "Janos Kornai: a non-mainstream pathway from economic planning to disequilibrium economics," Post-Print hal-03206929, HAL.
    3. Byung-Yeon Kim, 2002. "Causes of repressed inflation in the Soviet consumer market, 1965–1989: retail price subsidies, the siphoning effect, and the budget deficit[I thank An]," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 55(1), pages 105-127, February.
    4. Lindbeck, Assar, 2007. "János Kornai’s Contributions to Economic Analysis," Working Paper Series 724, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    5. Karl‐Friedrich Israel & Gunther Schnabl, 2024. "Alternative measures of price inflation and the perception of real income in Germany," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 618-636, February.
    6. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2021. "János Kornai, the Austrians, and the political and economic analysis of socialism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 85-97, April.
    7. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2017. "The Euro Trap: On Bursting Bubbles, Budgets, and Beliefs," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198791447.
    8. George Garvy, 1977. "Introduction to "Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union"," NBER Chapters, in: Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union, pages 1-12, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Igor Birman, 1980. "The financial crisis in the USSR," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 84-105.
    10. János Kornai, 2016. "The System Paradigm Revisited. Clarification and Additions in the Light of Experiences in the Post-Socialist Region," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 66(4), pages 547-596, December.
    11. Samuel Demeulemeester, 2021. "The 100% money proposal of the 1930s: an avatar of the Currency School’s reform ideas?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 577-598, July.
    12. Eric Magnin & Nikolay Nenovsky, 2021. "Calculating without money. Theories of in-kind accounting of Alexander Chayanov, Otto Neurath and the early Soviet experiences," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 456-477, May.
    13. George Garvy, 1977. "Appendix to "Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union"," NBER Chapters, in: Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union, pages 190-218, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Kedan, Danielle & Veghazy, Alexia Ventula, 2021. "The implications of liquidity regulation for monetary policy implementation and the central bank balance sheet size: an empirical analysis of the euro area," Working Paper Series 2515, European Central Bank.
    15. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2021. "Introduction: a special issue in honoring Janos Kornai," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 1-13, April.
    16. Igor Birman, 1980. "A reply to professor Pickersgill," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 586-591.
    17. Barro, Robert J & Grossman, Herschel I, 1971. "A General Disequilibrium Model of Income and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 82-93, March.
    18. Wladimir Andreff, 2021. "Janos Kornai: a non-mainstream pathway from economic planning to disequilibrium economics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 63-83, April.
    19. Reinhart, Carmen & Kirkegaard, Jacob & Sbrancia, Belen, 2011. "Financial repression redux," MPRA Paper 31641, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2014. "Soft Budget Constraint Reconsidered," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 1-19, January.
    21. Wladimir Andreff, 2021. "Janos Kornai: a non-mainstream pathway from economic planning to disequilibrium economics," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03206929, HAL.
    22. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3735 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Mehrdad VAHABI, 2001. "The Soft Budget Constraint : A Theoretical Clarification," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 2001024, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    24. George Garvy, 1977. "Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number garv77-1, July.
    25. Bo Becker & Victoria Ivashina, 2018. "Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis [Sovereign debt, government myopia and the financial sector]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 83-115.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Nenovsky, Nikolay, 2020. "The Theory of the Emission Economy Bolshevik roots of "Modern Monetary Theory"," MPRA Paper 113048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2022. "In Janos Kornai’s memory," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 265-271, March.
    3. Adrien Faudot & Tsvetelina Marinova & Nikolay Nenovsky, 2022. "Comecon Monetary Mechanisms. A history of socialist monetary integration (1949 -1991)," Working Papers hal-04084493, HAL.
    4. Nakamura, Yasushi, 2013. "Soviet foreign trade and the money supply," BOFIT Discussion Papers 30/2013, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    5. Çağatay Bircan & Ralph De Haas, 2020. "The Limits of Lending? Banks and Technology Adoption across Russia," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 536-609.
    6. repec:hhs:bofitp:2012_010 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2018. "János Kornai and General Equilibrium Theory," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 68(supplemen), pages 27-52, January.
    8. Nakamura, Yasushi, 2016. "Long-tarm Monetary Statistics for Russia," RRC Working Paper Series 63, Russian Research Center, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    9. Berkowitz, Daniel & Hoekstra, Mark & Schoors, Koen, 2014. "Bank privatization, finance, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 93-106.
    10. Derek Bailey, 1995. "Accounting in transition in the transitional economy," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 595-623.
    11. Dastan ASEİNOV & Kamalbek KARYMSHAKOV, 2018. "Development of the Banking System in Kyrgyzstan: An Historical Review and Current Challenges," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    12. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2021. "Socialism and Kornai’s revolutionary perspective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 37-54, April.
    13. Pyle, William & Schoors, Koen & Semenova, Maria & Yudaeva, Ksenya, 2013. "Bank Depositor behavior in Russia in the Aftermath of Financial Crisis," MPRA Paper 68932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Daniel Berkowitz & Mark Hoekstra & Koen Schoors, 2012. "Does Finance Cause Growth? Evidence from the Origins of Banking in Russia," NBER Working Papers 18139, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2021. "Introduction: a special issue in honoring Janos Kornai," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 1-13, April.
    16. Vahabi, Mehrdad, 2020. "نئولیبرالیسم و مقابله با تورم [The Neoliberalism and the Inflation Control]," MPRA Paper 102539, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet, 2021. "New evidence on the soft budget constraint: Chinese environmental policy effectiveness in SOE-dominated cities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 111-142, April.
    18. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet-Coudrier, 2020. "New Evidence on the Soft Budget Constraint: Chinese Environmental Policy Effectiveness in Private versus SOEs," Post-Print halshs-02469382, HAL.
    19. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2021. "János Kornai, the Austrians, and the political and economic analysis of socialism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 85-97, April.
    20. Ohls, Jana, 2017. "Moral suasion in regional government bond markets," Discussion Papers 33/2017, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    21. Byung‐Yeon Kim & Yoshisada Shida, 2017. "Shortages and the informal economy in the Soviet republics, 1965–89," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1346-1374, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    J. Kornai; Soft budget constraint; Soft monetary constraint; European sovereign debt; Repressed inflation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General

    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:kap:revaec:v:37:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11138-022-00584-x. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.