IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedpwp/15-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the inherent instability of private money

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel R. Sanches

Abstract

A primary concern in monetary economics is whether a purely private monetary regime is consistent with macroeconomic stability. I show that a competitive regime is inherently unstable due to the properties of endogenously determined limits on private money creation. Precisely, there is a continuum of equilibria characterized by a self-fulfilling collapse of the value of private money and a persistent decline in the demand for money. I associate these equilibrium allocations with self-fulfilling banking crises. It is possible to formulate a fiscal intervention that results in the global determinacy of equilibrium, with the property that the value of private money remains stable. Thus, the goal of monetary stability necessarily requires some form of government intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel R. Sanches, 2015. "On the inherent instability of private money," Working Papers 15-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:15-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2015/wp15-18.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antinolfi, Gaetano & Huybens, Elisabeth & Keister, Todd, 2001. "Monetary Stability and Liquidity Crises: The Role of the Lender of Last Resort," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 99(1-2), pages 187-219, July.
    2. Williamson, Stephen D, 1999. "Private Money," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(3), pages 469-491, August.
    3. Bruce Smith & Warren E. Weber, 1999. "Private money creation and the Suffolk Banking System," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 624-667.
    4. Berentsen, Aleksander, 2006. "On the private provision of fiat currency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1683-1698, October.
    5. Jess Benhabib & Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe & Martin Uribe, 2002. "Avoiding Liquidity Traps," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(3), pages 535-563, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Gorton, Gary B., 2012. "Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don't See Them Coming," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199922901.
    8. King, Robert G., 1983. "On the economics of private money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 127-158.
    9. Zhu, Tao, 2005. "Existence of a monetary steady state in a matching model: divisible money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 135-160, August.
    10. Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2003. "Dynamics, cycles, and sunspot equilibria in 'genuinely dynamic, fundamentally disaggregative' models of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 156-171, April.
    11. Ricardo de O. Cavalcanti & Andres Erosa & Ted Temzelides, 1999. "Private Money and Reserve Management in a Random-Matching Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(5), pages 929-945, October.
    12. Chao Gu & Fabrizio Mattesini & Cyril Monnet & Randall Wright, 2013. "Endogenous Credit Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(5), pages 940-965.
    13. Li, Yiting, 2006. "Banks, private money, and government regulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 2067-2083, November.
    14. Timothy J. Kehoe & David K. Levine, 1993. "Debt-Constrained Asset Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(4), pages 865-888.
    15. Bruce Champ & Bruce D. Smith & Stephen D. Williamson, 1996. "Currency Elasticity and Banking Panics: Theory and Evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(4), pages 828-864, November.
    16. Franklin Allen & Douglas Gale, 2004. "Competition and financial stability," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 453-486.
    17. Cyril Monnet & Daniel R. Sanches, 2012. "Private liquidity and banking regulation," Working Papers 12-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    18. Klein, Benjamin, 1974. "The Competitive Supply of Money," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(4), pages 423-453, November.
    19. Freeman, Scott, 1996. "The Payments System, Liquidity, and Rediscounting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1126-1138, December.
    20. He, Ping & Huang, Lixin & Wright, Randall, 2008. "Money, banking, and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 1013-1024, September.
    21. Fernando Alvarez & Urban J. Jermann, 2000. "Efficiency, Equilibrium, and Asset Pricing with Risk of Default," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 775-798, July.
    22. Andolfatto, David & Nosal, Ed, 2009. "Money, intermediation, and banking," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 289-294, April.
    23. Berentsen, Aleksander & Camera, Gabriele & Waller, Christopher, 2007. "Money, credit and banking," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 171-195, July.
    24. Kahn, Charles M & Roberds, William, 1999. "Demandable Debts as a Means of Payment: Banknotes versus Checks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(3), pages 500-525, August.
    25. Boyd, John H & De Nicolo, Gianni & Smith, Bruce D, 2004. "Crises in Competitive versus Monopolistic Banking Systems," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 487-506, June.
    26. Chao Gu & Fabrizio Mattesini & Randall Wright, 2013. "Banking: A New Monetarist Approach," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(2), pages 636-662.
    27. Azariadis, Costas & Bullard, James & Smith, Bruce D., 2001. "Private and Public Circulating Liabilities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 99(1-2), pages 59-116, July.
    28. Ricardo de O. Cavalcanti & Neil Wallace, 1999. "A model of private bank-note issue," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 2(1), pages 104-136, January.
    29. Freeman, Scott, 1996. "Clearinghouse banks and banknote over-issue," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 101-115, August.
    30. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    31. Jean, Kasie & Rabinovich, Stanislav & Wright, Randall, 2010. "On the multiplicity of monetary equilibria: Green-Zhou meets Lagos-Wright," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 392-401, January.
    32. Ricardo de O. Cavalcanti & Neil Wallace, 1999. "Inside and outside money as alternative media of exchange," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 443-468.
    33. Milton Friedman & Anna J. Schwartz, 1987. "Has Government Any Role in Money?," NBER Chapters, in: Money in Historical Perspective, pages 289-314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Mills, David C., 2007. "A Model In Which Outside And Inside Money Are Essential," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 347-366, June.
    35. Shouyong Shi, 1997. "A Divisible Search Model of Fiat Money," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 75-102, January.
    36. N/A, 1996. "Note:," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 31(1-2), pages 1-1, January.
    37. Li, Yiting, 2001. "A Search Model of Money and Circulating Private Debt with Applications to Monetary Policy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(4), pages 925-946, November.
    38. Martin, Antoine & Schreft, Stacey L., 2006. "Currency competition: A partial vindication of Hayek," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 2085-2111, 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. Stephan Imhof & Cyril Monnet & Shengxing Zhang, 2018. "The Risk-Taking Channel of Liquidity Regulations and Monetary Policy," Diskussionsschriften dp1815, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    2. Hajime Tomura, 2019. "On Separation between Payment and Saving Instruments," Working Papers 1813, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    3. Shao, Enchuan & Fung, Ben S.C., 2016. "Counterfeit quality and verification in a monetary exchange," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 13-25.
    4. Jess Benhabib & Jianjun Miao & Pengfei Wang, 2016. "Chaotic banking crises and regulations," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(2), pages 393-422, February.
    5. Olivier Hueber, 2018. "The blockchain and the sidechain innovations for the electronic commerce beyond the Bitcoin's framework," Post-Print hal-01919094, HAL.
    6. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Sanches, Daniel, 2019. "Can currency competition work?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Gronwald, Marc, 2019. "Is Bitcoin a Commodity? On price jumps, demand shocks, and certainty of supply," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 86-92.
    8. Matsuoka, Tarishi, 2022. "Asset prices and standing facilities in a monetary economy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. Donaldson, Jason & Piacentino, Giorgia, 2019. "Money Runs," CEPR Discussion Papers 13955, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Hanna Armelius & Carl Andreas Claussen & Scott Hendry, 2020. "Is Central Bank Currency Fundamental to the Monetary System?," Discussion Papers 2020-2, Bank of Canada.
    11. Jamal Bouoiyour & Refk Selmi & Olivier Hueber, 2019. "Low on Trust and High on Risks: Is Sidechain a Good Solution to Bitcoin Problems?," Working Papers hal-02348406, HAL.
    12. Waknis, Parag, 2017. "Competitive Supply of Money in a New Monetarist Model," MPRA Paper 75401, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Donaldson, Jason Roderick & Piacentino, Giorgia, 2022. "Money runs," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 35-57.
    14. Jason R. Donaldson & Giorgia Piacentino, 2019. "Money Runs," NBER Working Papers 26298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Salter, Alexander & Tarko, Vlad, 2017. "Governing the Financial System: A Theory of Financial Resilience," Working Papers 06954, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    16. Joshua Aizenman, 2019. "Macroeconomics Challenges and Resilience of Emerging Market Economies," NBER Working Papers 26361, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. Daniel Sanches, 2016. "On The Welfare Properties Of Fractional Reserve Banking," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57, pages 935-954, August.
    2. Daniel R. Sanches, 2013. "On the welfare properties of fractional reserve banking," Working Papers 13-32, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    3. Daniel R. Sanches, 2013. "Banking crises and the role of bank coalitions," Working Papers 13-28, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    4. 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.
    5. Daniel Sanches, 2016. "On The Welfare Properties Of Fractional Reserve Banking," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 935-954, August.
    6. Cyril Monnet & Daniel R. Sanches, 2015. "Private Money and Banking Regulation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(6), pages 1031-1062, September.
    7. Stephen D. Williamson & Randall Wright, 2010. "New monetarist economics: methods," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 92(May), pages 265-302.
    8. Gu, Chao & Monnet, Cyril & Nosal, Ed & Wright, Randall, 2023. "Diamond–Dybvig and beyond: On the instability of banking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2006. "The economics of payments," Policy Discussion Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Feb.
    10. Berentsen, Aleksander & Camera, Gabriele & Waller, Christopher, 2007. "Money, credit and banking," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 171-195, July.
    11. Chao Gu & Fabrizio Mattesini & Randall Wright, 2016. "Money and Credit Redux," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1-32, January.
    12. Stephen Williamson, 2000. "The Research Agenda: Payment Systems and Private Money," EconomicDynamics Newsletter, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 2(1), November.
    13. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "A Microfoundation of Monetary Economics," Working Papers tecipa-211, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    14. Berentsen, Aleksander, 2006. "On the private provision of fiat currency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1683-1698, October.
    15. Jesús Fernández‐Villaverde, 2018. "Cryptocurrencies: A Crash Course in Digital Monetary Economics," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(4), pages 514-526, December.
    16. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Sanches, Daniel, 2019. "Can currency competition work?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Chao Gu & Fabrizio Mattesini & Randall Wright, 2013. "Banking: A New Monetarist Approach," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(2), pages 636-662.
    18. Allen Head & Junfeng Qiu, 2007. "Elastic Money, Inflation, And Interest Rate Policy," Working Paper 1152, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    19. 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.
    20. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright & Cathy Zhang, 2018. "Corporate Finance and Monetary Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1147-1186, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Private money; Self-fulfilling crises; Macroeconomic stability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    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:fip:fedpwp:15-18. 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: Beth Paul (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbphus.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.