IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2019-252.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Itai Agur
  • Mr. Anil Ari
  • Mr. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia

Abstract

We study the optimal design of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in an environment where agents sort into cash, CBDC and bank deposits according to their preferences over anonymity and security; and where network effects make the convenience of payment instruments dependent on the number of their users. CBDC can be designed with attributes similar to cash or deposits, and can be interest-bearing: a CBDC that closely competes with deposits depresses bank credit and output, while a cash-like CBDC may lead to the disappearance of cash. Then, the optimal CBDC design trades off bank intermediation against the social value of maintaining diverse payment instruments. When network effects matter, an interest-bearing CBDC alleviates the central bank's tradeoff.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Itai Agur & Mr. Anil Ari & Mr. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia, 2019. "Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies," IMF Working Papers 2019/252, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=48739
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter Engert & Ben Fung & Scott Hendry, 2018. "Is a Cashless Society Problematic?," Discussion Papers 18-12, Bank of Canada.
    2. Jeremy C. Stein, 2012. "Monetary Policy as Financial Stability Regulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 57-95.
    3. Merrouche, Ouarda & Nier, Erlend, 2012. "Payment systems, inside money and financial intermediation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 359-382.
    4. Jonathan Chiu & Mohammad Davoodalhosseini & Janet Hua Jiang & Yu Zhu, 2019. "Bank Market Power and Central Bank Digital Currency: Theory and Quantitative Assessment," Staff Working Papers 19-20, Bank of Canada.
    5. Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Central Bank Digital Cash and Cryptocurrencies: Insights from a New Baumol–Friedman Demand for Money," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(4), pages 540-550, December.
    6. Wilko Bolt & Maarten R.C. Van Oordt, 2020. "On the Value of Virtual Currencies," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(4), pages 835-862, June.
    7. Naoki Wakamori & Angelika Welte, 2017. "Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 115-169, February.
    8. Mr. John Kiff & Jihad Alwazir & Sonja Davidovic & Aquiles Farias & Mr. Ashraf Khan & Mr. Tanai Khiaonarong & Majid Malaika & Mr. Hunter K Monroe & Nobu Sugimoto & Hervé Tourpe & Peter Zhou, 2020. "A Survey of Research on Retail Central Bank Digital Currency," IMF Working Papers 2020/104, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Alex Cukierman, 2020. "Reflections on welfare and political economy aspects of a central bank digital currency," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(S1), pages 114-125, September.
    10. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    11. Ruchir Agarwal & Miles Kimball, 2015. "Breaking Through the Zero Lower Bound," IMF Working Papers 2015/224, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Richard Schmalensee, 1978. "Entry Deterrence in the Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 305-327, Autumn.
    13. Brunnermeier, Markus K. & Niepelt, Dirk, 2019. "On the equivalence of private and public money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 27-41.
    14. Ferrari Minesso, Massimo & Mehl, Arnaud & Stracca, Livio, 2022. "Central bank digital currency in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 54-68.
    15. Emanuele Borgonovo & Stefano Caselli & Alessandra Cillo & Donato Masciandaro & Giovanni Rabitti, 2019. "Privacy and Money: It Matters," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 19108, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    16. Dirk Niepelt, 2020. "Reserves for All? Central Bank Digital Currency, Deposits, and Their (Non)-Equivalence," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 16(3), pages 211-238, June.
    17. Gersbach, Hans & Böser, Florian, 2020. "Monetary Policy with a Central Bank Digital Currency: The Short and the Long Term," CEPR Discussion Papers 15322, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2016. "The Curse of Cash," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10798.
    19. Gita Gopinath & Jeremy C Stein, 2021. "Banking, Trade, and the Making of a Dominant Currency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 783-830.
    20. Eun Young Oh & Shuonan Zhang, 2022. "Informal economy and central bank digital currency," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1520-1539, October.
    21. Cukierman, Alex, 2019. "Welfare and Political Economy Aspects of a Central Bank Digital Currency," CEPR Discussion Papers 13728, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. David Andolfatto, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of Central Bank Digital Currency on Private Banks," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(634), pages 525-540.
    23. Mr. Dong He & Mr. Ross B Leckow & Mr. V. Haksar & Mr. Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli & Nigel Jenkinson & Ms. Mikari Kashima & Mr. Tanai Khiaonarong & Ms. Celine Rochon & Hervé Tourpe, 2017. "Fintech and Financial Services: Initial Considerations," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2017/005, International Monetary Fund.
    24. Young Sik Kim & Ohik Kwon, 2019. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Financial Stability," Working Papers 2019-6, Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea.
    25. Michael D. Bordo & Andrew T. Levin, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 23711, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Richard Wright & Erdal Tekin & Volkan Topalli & Chandler McClellan & Timothy Dickinson & Richard Rosenfeld, 2017. "Less Cash, Less Crime: Evidence from the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(2), pages 361-383.
    27. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    28. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    29. Raphael A. Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8655, CESifo.
    30. Robert Hauswald & Robert Marquez, 2006. "Competition and Strategic Information Acquisition in Credit Markets," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 967-1000.
    31. Krugman, Paul R., 1979. "Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 469-479, November.
    32. Stokes, Donald E., 1963. "Spatial Models of Party Competition," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 368-377, June.
    33. Rod Garratt & Maarten van Oordt, 2019. "Systemic Privacy as a Public Good: A Case for Electronic Cash," Staff Working Papers 19-24, Bank of Canada.
    34. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich & Gita Gopinath & Prachi Mishra & Abhinav Narayanan, 2020. "Cash and the Economy: Evidence from India’s Demonetization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 57-103.
    35. Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde & Daniel Sanches & Linda Schilling & Harald Uhlig, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Central Banking For All?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 41, pages 225-242, July.
    36. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Matthieu Bouvard & Catherine Casamatta, 2019. "The Blockchain Folk Theorem," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1662-1715.
    37. Christian Barontini & Henry Holden, 2019. "Proceeding with caution - a survey on central bank digital currency," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 101.
    38. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    39. Rochet Jean-Charles & Tirole Jean, 2006. "Externalities and Regulation in Card Payment Systems," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-14, March.
    40. Dong He & Ross B Leckow & Vikram Haksar & Tommaso Mancini Griffoli & Nigel Jenkinson & Mikari Kashima & Tanai Khiaonarong & Celine Rochon & Hervé Tourpe, 2017. "Fintech and Financial Services; Initial Considerations," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 17/05, International Monetary Fund.
    41. Shy, Oz, 2021. "Cashless stores and cash users," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 622-638.
    42. Chakravorti Sujit, 2010. "Externalities in Payment Card Networks: Theory and Evidence," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 1-28, June.
    43. Charles M. Kahn & Francisco Rivadeneyra & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2018. "Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?," Staff Working Papers 18-58, Bank of Canada.
    44. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2001. "Liquidity Risk, Liquidity Creation, and Financial Fragility: A Theory of Banking," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(2), pages 287-327, April.
    45. Emanuele Borgonovo & Stefano Caselli & Alessandra Cillo & Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Between Cash, Deposit And Bitcoin: Would We Like A Central Bank Digital Currency? Money Demand And Experimental Economics," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1875, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    46. Wouter Bossu & Mr. Masaru Itatani & Arthur D. P. Rossi, 2020. "Legal Aspects of Central Bank Digital Currency: Central Bank and Monetary Law Considerations," IMF Working Papers 2020/254, International Monetary Fund.
    47. David Bounie & Abel François & Leo Van Hove, 2017. "Consumer Payment Preferences, Network Externalities, and Merchant Card Acceptance: An Empirical Investigation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 51(3), pages 257-290, November.
    48. Athey, Susan & Catalini, Christian & Tucker, Catherin E., 2017. "The Digital Privacy Paradox: Small Money, Small Costs, Small Talk," Research Papers 3498, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    49. Todd Keister & Daniel Sanches, 2023. "Should Central Banks Issue Digital Currency?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 404-431.
    50. Till Ebner & Dr. Thomas Nellen & Dr. Jörn Tenhofen, 2021. "The rise of digital watchers," Working Papers 2021-01, Swiss National Bank.
    51. Hanna Armelius & Carl Andreas Claussen & Scott Hendry, 2020. "Is Central Bank Currency Fundamental to the Monetary System?," Discussion Papers 2020-2, Bank of Canada.
    52. Itai Agur & Mario Bergara & Michael D. Bordo & Alessandra Cillo & Walter Engert & Santiago Fernandez de Lis & Ben S.C. Fung & Ernest Gnan & Andrew T. Levin & Dirk Niepelt & Ruth Judson & Donato Mascia, 2018. "Do We Need Central Bank Digital Currency? Economics, Technology and Institutions," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 2018/2 edited by Ernest Gnan and Donato Masciandaro, May.
    53. Carin Cruijsen & Joris Knoben, 2021. "Ctrl+C Ctrl+Pay: Do People Mirror Electronic Payment Behavior of their Peers?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 69-96, April.
    54. Ruchir Agarwal & Miles Kimball, 2019. "Enabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide," IMF Working Papers 2019/084, International Monetary Fund.
    55. Janet Hua & Yu Zhu, 2021. "Monetary Policy Pass-Through with Central Bank Digital Currency," Staff Working Papers 21-10, Bank of Canada.
    56. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    57. Katrin Assenmacher & Signe Krogstrup, 2021. "Monetary Policy with Negative Interest Rates: De-linking Cash from Digital Money," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 17(1), pages 67-106, March.
    58. Rodney J. Garratt & Maarten R. C. van Oordt, 2021. "Privacy as a Public Good: A Case for Electronic Cash," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(7), pages 2157-2180.
    59. Jonathan Chiu & Janet Hua Jiang & Seyed Mohammadreza Davoodalhosseini & Yu Zhu, 2019. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Banking," 2019 Meeting Papers 862, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    60. Charles M. Kahn & James McAndrews & William Roberds, 2005. "Money Is Privacy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 377-399, May.
    61. Walter Engert & Ben Fung, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Motivations and Implications," Discussion Papers 17-16, Bank of Canada.
    62. Meaning, Jack & Dyson, Ben & Barker, James & Clayton, Emily, 2018. "Broadening narrow money: monetary policy with a central bank digital currency," Bank of England working papers 724, Bank of England.
    63. Charles M. Kahn & Francisco Rivadeneyra & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2020. "Eggs in One Basket: Security and Convenience of Digital Currencies," Working Papers 2020-032, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    64. Katrin Assenmacher & Signe Krogstrup, 2018. "Monetary Policy with Negative Interest Rates: Decoupling Cash from Electronic Money," IMF Working Papers 2018/191, International Monetary Fund.
    65. Kim Huynh & Jozsef Molnar & Oleksandr Shcherbakov & Qinghui Yu, 2020. "Demand for Payment Services and Consumer Welfare: The Introduction of a Central Bank Digital Currency," Staff Working Papers 20-7, Bank of Canada.
    66. Barrdear, John & Kumhof, Michael, 2016. "The macroeconomics of central bank issued digital currencies," Bank of England working papers 605, Bank of England.
    67. Mr. Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli & Mr. Maria Soledad Martinez Peria & Mr. Itai Agur & Mr. Anil Ari & Mr. John Kiff & Ms. Adina Popescu & Ms. Celine Rochon, 2018. "Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2018/008, International Monetary Fund.
    68. Tommaso Mancini Griffoli & Maria Soledad Martinez Peria & Itai Agur & Anil Ari & John Kiff & Adina Popescu & Celine Rochon, 2018. "Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 18/08, International Monetary Fund.
    69. Alvarez, Fernando & Argente, David & Jimenez, Rafael & Lippi, Francesco, 2022. "Cash: A Blessing or a curse?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 85-128.
    70. Ben Fung & Hanna Halaburda, 2016. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Framework for Assessing Why and How," Discussion Papers 16-22, Bank of Canada.
    71. Codruta Boar & Henry Holden & Amber Wadsworth, 2020. "Impending arrival - a sequel to the survey on central bank digital currency," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 107.
    72. Gita Gopinath & Jeremy C Stein, 0. "Banking, Trade, and the Making of a Dominant Currency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 136(2), pages 783-830.
    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. Marcelo A. T. Aragão, 2021. "A Few Things You Wanted to Know about the Economics of CBDCs, but were Afraid to Model: a survey of what we can learn from who has done," Working Papers Series 554, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    2. Li, Jiaqi, 2023. "Predicting the demand for central bank digital currency: A structural analysis with survey data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 73-85.
    3. Alexandra Mitschke, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currencies and Monetary Policy Effectiveness in the Euro Area," Working Papers Dissertations 74, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    4. Rehman, Mubeen Abdur & Irfan, Muhammad & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Lucey, Brian M. & Karim, Sitara, 2023. "Macro-financial implications of central bank digital currencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Hoang, Yen Hai & Ngo, Vu Minh & Bich Vu, Ngoc, 2023. "Central bank digital currency: A systematic literature review using text mining approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Thitima Chucherd & Chanokkarn Mek-yong & Nalin Nookhwun & Passawuth Nuntnarumit & Natta Piyakarnchana & Suparit Suwanik, 2021. "Monetary and Financial Perspectives on Retail CBDC in the Thai Context," PIER Discussion Papers 152, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Cong, Lin William & Mayer, Simon, 2022. "The Coming Battle of Digital Currencies," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 320020, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    9. Grodecka-Messi, Anna & Zhang, Xin, 2023. "Private bank money vs central bank money: A historical lesson for CBDC introduction," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    10. Todd Keister & Daniel Sanches, 2023. "Should Central Banks Issue Digital Currency?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 404-431.
    11. Ahnert, Toni & Assenmacher, Katrin & Hoffmann, Peter & Leonello, Agnese & Monnet, Cyril & Porcellacchia, Davide, 2022. "The economics of central bank digital currency," CEPR Discussion Papers 17617, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Raphael Auer & Tara Rice, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: Motives, Economic Implications, and the Research Frontier," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 697-721, August.
    13. Jia, Pengfei, 2020. "Negative Interest Rates on Central Bank Digital Currency," MPRA Paper 103828, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Eun Young Oh & Shuonan Zhang, 2022. "Informal economy and central bank digital currency," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1520-1539, October.
    15. Ferrari Minesso, Massimo & Mehl, Arnaud & Stracca, Livio, 2022. "Central bank digital currency in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 54-68.
    16. Raphael A. Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8655, CESifo.
    17. Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde & Daniel Sanches & Linda Schilling & Harald Uhlig, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Central Banking For All?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 41, pages 225-242, July.
    18. Dr. Romain Baeriswyl & Dr. Samuel Reynard & Alexandre Swoboda, 2021. "Retail CBDC purposes and risk transfers to the central bank," Working Papers 2021-19, Swiss National Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP; central bank; interest rate; market power; CBDC design; interest-bearing CBDC; cash equilibrium; CBDC rate; cash holder; CBDC interest rate; CBDC risk; Central Bank digital currencies; Currencies; Payment systems; Bank deposits; Deposit rates;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • 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:imf:imfwpa:2019/252. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.