A number of commentators have argued that technological innovation is about to change the institutional structure of the retail payments system. Through the potential private issue of currency via new electronic payments systems – electronic money – individuals will create currencies based on units of account different from the dominant unit of account in the respective market. Thereby, the efficiency of the retail payments system would be enhanced. The following paper, however, denies the desirability of the parallel use of multiple units of account and the feasibility of competition in fiat-type currencies. The recent literature and Menger’s views on the subject are surveyed. Furthermore, the question is analyzed from an evolutionary point of view based on the interpretation of new electronic payments systems as networks The strategic incentives for issuers and users of currency to switch from the existing dominant unit of account to an alternative one are discussed. It is concluded that new electronic payments systems will provide redeemability on demand and that they will not diminish the role the national currencies as the dominant unit of account without specific regulation interfering in the their evolution.
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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Macroeconomics with number
0211009.
Length: 35 pages Date of creation: 18 Nov 2002 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0211009
Note: Type of Document - Word for Mac; prepared on Mac; pages: 35. substantially revised version published in M. Latzer & S. W. Schmitz (eds.), Carl Menger and the Evolution of Payments Systems: From Barter to Electronic Money, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2002 Contact details of provider: Web page: http://129.3.20.41
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Find related papers by JEL classification: E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (includes Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian)
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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.:
Nicholas Economides, 1995.
"The Economics of Networks,"
Working Papers
94-24, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics, revised Sep 1995.
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