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Helicopter Money: Irredeemable Fiat Money and the Liquidity Trap

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Author Info
Willem H. Buiter

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Abstract

The paper provides a formalisation of the monetary folk proposition that fiat base money is an asset of the holder but not a liability of the issuer. The issuance of irredeemable fiat base money can have pure fiscal effects on private demand. With irredeemable fiat base money, weak restrictions on the monetary policy rule suffice to rule out liquidity trap equilibria - equilibria in which all current and future short nominal interest rates are at their lower bounds. In a model with flexible prices, liquidity trap equilibria cannot occur as long as the private sector does not expect the monetary authority to reduce the nominal money stock to zero in the long run. In a New-Keynesian model out provided the private sector expects the authorities not to reduce the nominal stock of base money below a certain finite level in the long run. Liquidity trap equilibria can exist if and for as long as the private sector expects that the monetary authorities will ultimately reverse any current expansion of the monetary base in present value terms.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10163.

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Date of creation: Dec 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10163

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money

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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. Buiter, Willem H, 2003. "Two Naked Emperors? Concerns about the Stability and Growth Pact and Second Thoughts About Central Bank Independence," CEPR Discussion Papers 4001, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Michael Woodford, 2003. "Optimal Monetary Policy in a Liquidity Trap," NBER Working Papers 9968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Hall, Robert E., 1983. "Optimal fiduciary monetary systems," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 33-50. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1982. "Interest rates and currency prices in a two-country world," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 335-359. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Willem H. Buiter, 2002. "The Fiscal Theory Of The Price Level: A Critique," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(481), pages 459-480, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Buiter, Willem H, 2003. "Deflation: Prevention and Cure," CEPR Discussion Papers 3869, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Paul A. Samuelson, 1958. "An Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest with or without the Social Contrivance of Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 467. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Blanchard, Olivier J, 1985. "Debt, Deficits, and Finite Horizons," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 223-47, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Araujo, A. & Scheinkman, J. A., 1983. "Maximum principle and transversality condition for concave infinite horizon economic models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-16, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Michel, Philippe, 1990. "Some Clarifications on the Transversality Condition," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(3), pages 705-23, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Willem H Buiter & Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, . "Liquidity traps: how to avoid them and how to escape them," Bank of England working papers 111, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Gauti B. Eggertsson, 2003. "How to Fight Deflation in a Liquidity Trap: Committing to Being Irresponsible," IMF Working Papers 03/64, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  13. Obstfeld, Maurice & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1983. "Speculative Hyperinflations in Maximizing Models: Can We Rule Them Out?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(4), pages 675-87, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Thomas J. Sargent & Neil Wallace, 1981. "Some unpleasant monetarist arithmetic," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Fall. [Downloadable!]
  15. Chadha, J.S. & Charles Nolan, 2002. "Output, Inflation and the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0204, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
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  16. King, Robert G., 1983. "On the economics of private money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 127-158. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Marvin Goodfriend, 2000. "Overcoming the zero bound on interest rate policy," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 1007-1057.
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  18. Michael Woodford, 1995. "Price Level Determinacy Without Control of a Monetary Aggregate," NBER Working Papers 5204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Fama, Eugene F., 1983. "Financial intermediation and price level control," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 7-28. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Kamihigashi, Takashi, 2001. "Necessity of Transversality Conditions for Infinite Horizon Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 995-1012, July.
  21. Michael Woodford, 1996. "Control of the Public Debt: A Requirement for Price Stability?," NBER Working Papers 5684, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Wallace, Neil, 1981. "A Modigliani-Miller Theorem for Open-Market Operations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 267-74, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Sims, Christopher A., 2001. "Fiscal Aspects of Central Bank Independence," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  24. Willem H. Buiter & Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, 2003. "Overcoming the zero bound on nominal interest rates with negative interest on currency: gesell's solution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(490), pages 723-746, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Buiter, Willem H & Sibert, Anne, 2006. "Deflationary Bubbles," CEPR Discussion Papers 5637, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  26. Marc D. Weidenmier & Richard C.K. Burdekin, 2002. "Suppressing Asset Price Inflation: The Confederate Experience, 1861-1865," NBER Working Papers 9230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  27. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1980. "Equilibrium in a Pure Currency Economy," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 203-20, April.
  28. Obstfeld, Maurice & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1986. "Ruling out divergent speculative bubbles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 349-362, May. [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. Willem Buiter, 2004. "A Small Corner of Intertemporal Public Finance - New Developments in Monetary Economics: 2 Ghosts, 2 Eccentricities, A Fallacy, A Mirage and A Mythos," NBER Working Papers 10524, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Willem H. Buiter, 2004. "The Elusive Welfare Economics of Price Stability as a Monetary Policy Objective: Should New Keynesian Central Bankers Pursue Price Stability?," NBER Working Papers 10848, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Buiter, Willem H, 2007. "Seigniorage," CEPR Discussion Papers 6152, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Willem H. Buiter & Anne C. Sibert, 2004. "Deflationary Bubbles," NBER Working Papers 10642, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Willem Buiter, 2007. "Is Numérairology the Future of Monetary Economics?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 127-156, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Wilem H. Buiter, 2005. "Overcoming the Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates: Gesell's Currency Carry Tax vs. Eisler's arallel Virtual Currency," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d05-96, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. [Downloadable!]
  7. W.H. Buiter, 2007. "Is Numérairology the Future of Monetary Economics?Unbundling numéraire and medium of exchange through a virtual currency and a shadow exchange rate," CEP Discussion Papers dp0776, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Buiter, Willem H, 2006. "How Robust is the New Conventional Wisdom? The Surprising Fragility of the Theoretical Foundations of Inflation Targeting and Central Bank Independence," CEPR Discussion Papers 5772, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Tomasz Michalak & Jacob Engwerda & Joseph Plasmans, 2009. "Strategic Interactions between Fiscal and Monetary Authorities in a Multi-Country New-Keynesian Model of a Monetary Union," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  10. Willem Buiter, 2005. "Overcoming the zero bound on nominal interest rates: Gesell’s currency carry tax vs. Eisler’s parallel virtual currency," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 189-200, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Willem H. Buiter, 2006. "The elusive welfare economics of price stability as a monetary policy objective - why New Keynesian central bankers should validate core inflation," Working Paper Series 609, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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