IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v192y2022ics0921800921003141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Money is money: The economic impact of BerkShares

Author

Listed:
  • Matti, Josh
  • Zhou, Yang

Abstract

Community currencies are a popular way localities around the world pursue a sustainable economy. However, no studies look at the economic impact of community currencies using modern causal inference methods. We use the synthetic control method to examine the short and long-term effects of the popular community currency BerkShares on the number of businesses, unemployment rate, and per capita income in the county in which it circulates. The results suggest that BerkShares has not had a discernible impact either directly on businesses or indirectly on local economic conditions. Additionally, BerkShares has not impacted business dynamics in a measurable way. Results from the synthetic control method suggest that establishment births, deaths, expansions, and contractions figures following BerkShares are no different than what they would have been without the currency. Given its lack of discernible impact, the results serve as a caution for localities considering community currencies as an economic development strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Matti, Josh & Zhou, Yang, 2022. "Money is money: The economic impact of BerkShares," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:192:y:2022:i:c:s0921800921003141
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003141
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107255?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colacelli, Mariana & Blackburn, David J.H., 2009. "Secondary currency: An empirical analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 295-308, April.
    2. Munasib, Abdul & Rickman, Dan S., 2015. "Regional economic impacts of the shale gas and tight oil boom: A synthetic control analysis," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    4. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S. & Ali, Kamar & Olfert, M. Rose, 2009. "Agglomeration spillovers and wage and housing cost gradients across the urban hierarchy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 126-140, June.
    5. McGranahan, David A., 1999. "Natural Amenities Drive Rural Population Change," Agricultural Economic Reports 33955, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Gregor Pfeifer & Fabian Wahl & Martyna Marczak, 2018. "Illuminating the World Cup effect: Night lights evidence from South Africa," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 887-920, November.
    7. Alberto Abadie & Alexis Diamond & Jens Hainmueller, 2015. "Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(2), pages 495-510, February.
    8. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    9. Seyfang, Gill & Longhurst, Noel, 2013. "Growing green money? Mapping community currencies for sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 65-77.
    10. Sebastian Galiani & Brian Quistorff, 2017. "The synth runner package: Utilities to automate synthetic control estimation using synth," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 17(4), pages 834-849, December.
    11. Grier, Kevin & Maynard, Norman, 2016. "The economic consequences of Hugo Chavez: A synthetic control analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 1-21.
    12. Ed Collom, 2005. "Community Currency in the United States: The Social Environments in Which it Emerges and Survives," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(9), pages 1565-1587, September.
    13. Kasaundra M. Tomlin, 2019. "Assessing the Efficacy of Consumer Boycotts of U.S. Target Firms: A Shareholder Wealth Analysis," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 503-529, October.
    14. Joshua C. Hall & Josh Matti & Yang Zhou, 2020. "The economic impact of city–county consolidations: a synthetic control approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 43-77, July.
    15. Higgins, Matthew J. & Levy, Daniel & Young, Andrew T., 2006. "Growth and Convergence across the United States: Evidence from County-Level Data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 88(4), pages 671-681.
    16. Pellegrini, Lorenzo & Tasciotti, Luca & Spartaco, Andrea, 2021. "A regional resource curse? A synthetic-control approach to oil extraction in Basilicata, Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Lopaciuk-Gonczaryk, Beata, 2019. "Social Capital Formation Through a Polish LETS: Challenging the Presumed Merits of Local Currencies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 75-87.
    18. Marshall, Adam P. & O'Neill, Daniel W., 2018. "The Bristol Pound: A Tool for Localisation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 273-281.
    19. Marie Fare & Pepita Ould Ahmed, 2017. "Complementary currency systems and their ability to support economic and social changes," Post-Print halshs-01623361, HAL.
    20. Nina Stępnicka & Grzegorz Zimon & Dariusz Brzozowiec, 2021. "The Complementary Currency Zielony in Poland and Its Importance for the Development of Local Economy Entities during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-26, August.
    21. Michel, Arnaud & Hudon, Marek, 2015. "Community currencies and sustainable development: A systematic review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 160-171.
    22. Robin M. Leichenko, 2001. "Growth and Change in U.S. Cities and Suburbs," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 326-354.
    23. Joe Ament, 2019. "Toward an Ecological Monetary Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    24. Ament, Joe, 2020. "An ecological monetary theory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    25. Kallis, Giorgos & Norgaard, Richard B., 2010. "Coevolutionary ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 690-699, February.
    26. Stodder, James, 2009. "Complementary credit networks and macroeconomic stability: Switzerland's Wirtschaftsring," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 79-95, October.
    27. Oliver Sanz, Esther, 2016. "Community currency (CCs) in Spain: An empirical study of their social effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 20-27.
    28. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    29. Jacob Bundrick & Weici Yuan, 2019. "Do Targeted Business Subsidies Improve Income and Reduce Poverty? A Synthetic Control Approach," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(4), pages 351-375, November.
    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. Jeremy September & Shigeto Kobayashi, 2022. "Sustained circulation: A descriptive framework of long-lived Japanese community currencies," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 37(5), pages 364-383, August.

    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. Joshua C. Hall & Josh Matti & Yang Zhou, 2020. "The economic impact of city–county consolidations: a synthetic control approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 43-77, July.
    2. Camille Meyer & Marek Hudon, 2019. "Money and the Commons: An Investigation of Complementary Currencies and Their Ethical Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 277-292, November.
    3. Louis Larue, 2022. "The case against alternative currencies," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 21(1), pages 75-93, February.
    4. Daniel D. Bonneau & Joshua C. Hall & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Institutional implant and economic stagnation: a counterfactual study of Somalia," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 483-503, March.
    5. Juan S. Mora‐Sanguinetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Economic effects of recent experiences of federalism: Analysis of the regionalization process in Spain," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 30-63, January.
    6. Larue, Louis, 2020. "The Ecology of Money: A Critical Assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    7. Daniel D. Bonneau & Joshua C. Hall, 2020. "Economic Activity, International Intervention, and Transitional Governance: A Comparative Case Study of Somalia," Working Papers 20-01, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    8. Francisco Javier García-Corral & Jaime de Pablo-Valenciano & Juan Milán-García & José Antonio Cordero-García, 2020. "Complementary Currencies: An Analysis of the Creation Process Based on Sustainable Local Development Principles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-22, July.
    9. Louis Larue & Camille Meyer & Marek Hudon & Joakim Sandberg, 2022. "The Ethics of Alternative Currencies," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/341622, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Giulio Grossi & Marco Mariani & Alessandra Mattei & Patrizia Lattarulo & Ozge Oner, 2020. "Direct and spillover effects of a new tramway line on the commercial vitality of peripheral streets. A synthetic-control approach," Papers 2004.05027, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    11. David Gilchrist & Thomas Emery & Nuno Garoupa & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Synthetic Control Method: A tool for comparative case studies in economic history," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 409-445, April.
    12. Bibek Adhikari, 2022. "A Guide to Using the Synthetic Control Method to Quantify the Effects of Shocks, Policies, and Shocking Policies," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 67(1), pages 46-63, March.
    13. Henry Aray & David Vera, 2023. "A Tale of Oil Production Collapse," ThE Papers 23/10, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    14. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel, 2018. "“Do government formation deadlocks damage economic growth? Evidence from history’s longest period of political deadlock”," IREA Working Papers 201817, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2018.
    15. Alessandro Melcarne & Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Rok Spruk, 2021. "Democracy, technocracy and economic growth: evidence from 20 century Spain," Working Papers 2118, Banco de España.
    16. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel & Ferran A. Mazaira-Font, 2020. "Ensuring Stability, Accuracy and Meaningfulness in Synthetic Control Methods: The Regularized SHAP-Distance Method," IREA Working Papers 202005, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Apr 2020.
    17. Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 60-95, March.
    18. César Martinelli & Marco Vega, 2019. "The Economic Legacy of General Velasco: Long-Term Consequences of Interventionism," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 42(84), pages 102-133.
    19. Rohan Best & Paul J. Burke, 2019. "Macroeconomic impacts of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1647-1681, May.
    20. Adam Scavette, 2023. "The Impact of New Jersey's Urban Enterprise Zones on Local Employment: A Synthetic Control Approach," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 37(2), pages 127-142, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    BerkShares; Community currency; Local currency; Sustainable development; Synthetic control;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - 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:eee:ecolec:v:192:y:2022:i:c:s0921800921003141. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    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.