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A model of commodity money, with applications to Gresham's Law and the debasement puzzle

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Author Info
Francois R. Velde
Warren E. Weber
Randall Wright

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Abstract

We develop a model of commodity money and use it to analyze the following two questions motivated by issues in monetary history: What are the conditions under which Gresham's Law holds? And, what are the mechanics of a debasement (lowering the metallic content of coins)? The model contains light and heavy coins, imperfect information, and prices determined via bilateral bargaining. There are equilibria with neither, both, or only one type of coin in circulation. When both circulate, coins may trade by weight or by tale. We discuss the extent to which Gresham's Law holds in the various cases. Following a debasement, the quantity of reminting depends on the incentives oÃered by the sovereign. Equilibria exist with positive seigniorage and a mixture of old and new coins in circulation.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series, Macroeconomic Issues with number WP-97-12.

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Date of creation: 1997
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhma:wp-97-12

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Keywords: Money ; Money theory ; Gresham's law;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Edward J. Green & Warren Weber, 1996. "Will the New $100 Bill Decrease Counterfeiting?," Macroeconomics 9609003, EconWPA, revised 11 Sep 1996. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Edward J. Green & Ruilin Zhou, . ""A Rudimentary Model of Search with Divisible Money and Prices''," CARESS Working Papres 95-17, University of Pennsylvania Center for Analytic Research and Economics in the Social Sciences. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Sargent, Thomas J. & Wallace, Meil, 1983. "A model of commodity money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 163-187. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Arthur J. Rolnick & Warren E. Weber, 1986. "Gresham's law or Gresham's fallacy?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Win, pages 17-24. [Downloadable!]
  5. Shouyong Shi, 1995. "Money and Prices: A Model of Search and Bargaining," Working Papers 916, Queen's University, Department of Economics.
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  6. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Eric S. Maskin, 1996. "A Walrasian Theory of Money," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1753, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  7. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1993. "A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 63-77, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Williamson, Steve & Wright, Randall, 1994. "Barter and Monetary Exchange under Private Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 104-23, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Rolnick, Arthur J & Weber, Warren E, 1986. "Gresham's Law or Gresham's Fallacy?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(1), pages 185-99, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Miguel Molico, 2006. "The Distribution Of Money And Prices In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(3), pages 701-722, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Li, Yiting, 1995. "Commodity money under private information," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 573-592, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Arthur J. Rolnick & François R. Velde & Warren E. Weber, 1995. "The debasement puzzle: an essay on medieval monetary policy," Working Papers 536, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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  16. Williamson, Stephen D., 1992. "Laissez-faire banking and circulating media of exchange," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 134-167, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Trejos, Alberto & Wright, Randall, 1995. "Search, Bargaining, Money, and Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(1), pages 118-41, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Akerlof, George A, 1970. "The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Alberto Trejos, 1997. "Incentives to produce quality and the liquidity of money (*)," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 355-365.
  21. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1989. "On Money as a Medium of Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 927-54, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Bruce D. Smith & Thomas J. Sargent, 1997. "Coinage, debasements, and Gresham's laws," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 197-226. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Cuadras-Morato, Xavier, 1994. "Commodity Money in the Presence of Goods of Heterogeneous Quality," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 579-91, May.
    Other versions:
  24. Greenfield, Robin L & Rockoff, Hugh, 1995. "Gresham's Law in Nineteenth-Century America," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(4), pages 1086-98, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1989. "Gresham's Law in a Lemons Market for Assets," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 22(3), pages 686-97, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Y. Jin & T. Temzelides, 1999. "On the Local Interaction of Money and Credit," Macroeconomics 9905001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Ed Nosal & Neil Wallace, 2004. "A model of (the threat of) counterfeiting," Working Paper 0401, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  3. Ben R. Craig & Christopher J. Waller, 2000. "Dual-currency economies as multiple-payment systems," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q I, pages 2-13. [Downloadable!]
  4. Aleksander Berentsen & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2004. "Money and Information," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 71(4), pages 915-944, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Sebastien Lotz & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2000. "Launching of a New Currency in a Simple Random Matching Model," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0720, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2008. "Money and competing assets under private information," Working Paper 0802, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  7. Stephen Millard, 2007. "The foundations of money, payments and central banking: A review essay," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2006 106, Money Macro and Finance Research Group. [Downloadable!]
  8. Angela Redish & Warren E. Weber, 2008. "Coin sizes and payments in commodity money systems," Working Papers 658, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Benjamin Lester & Andrew Postlewaite & Randall Wright, 2008. "Information, Liquidity and Asset Prices," PIER Working Paper Archive 08-039, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  10. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2009. "A monetary approach to asset liquidity," Working Paper 0901, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  11. Xavier Cuadras Morató, 2005. "Circulation of Private Notes during a Currency Shortage," Economics Working Papers 811, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Richard Dutu & Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2005. "On the recognizability of money," Working Paper 0512, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  13. Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2006. "The economics of payments," Policy Discussion Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Feb. [Downloadable!]
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