This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Money and Information

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Aleksander Berentsen
Guillaume Rocheteau

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of fiat money in decentralized markets, where producers have private information about the quality of the goods they supply. Money is divisible, terms of trade are determined endogenously, and agents can finance their consumption with money or with real production. When the fraction of high quality producers in the economy is given, money promotes the production of high-quality goods, which improves the quality mix and welfare unambiguously. When this fraction is endogenous, however, we find that money can be valued even though it decreases welfare relative to the barter equilibrium. The origin of this ine .ciency is that money provides consumption insurance to low-quality producers, which can result in a higher fraction of low-quality producers in the monetary equilibrium. Finally, we find that most often agents acquire more information in the monetary equilibrium. Consequently, money is welfare-enhancing because it promotes useful production and exchange, but not because it saves information costs.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.iew.unizh.ch/wp/iewwp099.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW in its series IEW - Working Papers with number iewwp099.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation:
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:099

Contact details of provider:

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Hanna Britt).

Related research
Keywords: Money; search; adverse selection; moral hazard;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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. Falk, Armin & Fehr, Ernst & Fischbacher, Urs, 2008. "Testing theories of fairness--Intentions matter," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 287-303, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Shouyong Shi, 1997. "A Divisible Search Model of Fiat Money," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 75-102, January.
    Other versions:
  4. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2001. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2002. "A unified framework for monetary theory and policy analysis," Working Paper 0211, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Ralf Becker & Urs Fischbacher & Thorsten Hens, . "Soft Landing of a Stock Market Bubble, An Experimental Study," IEW - Working Papers iewwp090, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  7. Xavier Cuadras, 1993. "Commodity Money in the Presence of Goods of Heterogenous Quality," Economics Working Papers 40, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Fischbacher, Urs & Thöni, Christian, 2008. "Excess entry in an experimental winner-take-all market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 150-163, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Simon Gächter & Armin Falk, . "Work motivation, institutions, and performance," IEW - Working Papers iewwp062, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  10. Haegler, Urs, 1997. "Fiat Money and Quality Uncertainty," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(256), pages 547-65, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Armin Falk & Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, . "Driving Forces of Informal Sanctions," IEW - Working Papers iewwp059, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  12. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1990. "Liquidity and interest rates," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 237-264, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Fehr, Ernst & Klein, Alexander & Schmidt, Klaus M., 2001. "Fairness, Incentives and Contractual Incompleteness," CEPR Discussion Papers 2790, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Rabah Amir & Igor V. Evstigneev & Thorsten Hens & Klaus Reiner Schenk-Hoppé, . "Market Selection and Survival of Investment Strategies," IEW - Working Papers iewwp091, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Brunner, Karl & Meltzer, Allan H, 1971. "The Uses of Money: Money in the Theory of an Exchange Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(5), pages 784-805, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Lars P. Feld & Bruno S. Frey, 2002. "Trust breeds trust: How taxpayers are treated," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 87-99, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  17. Bruno S. Frey & Reiner Eichenberger, . "A Proposal for a Flexible Europe," IEW - Working Papers iewwp056, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  18. Bruno Frey, 2001. "Flexible Citizenship for a Global Society," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series 1018, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Alchian, Armen A, 1977. "Why Money?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 133-40, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Shi, Shouyong, 1999. "Search, inflation and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 81-103, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  21. Li, Yiting, 1995. "Commodity money under private information," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 573-592, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Armin Falk & Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, . "Appropriating the Commons - A Theoretical Explanation," IEW - Working Papers iewwp055, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  23. Leonard J. Mirman & Klaus Reiner Schenk-HoppÈ, 2003. "Financial Markets and Stochastic Growth," Review of International Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 219-236, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  24. Bruno S. Frey & Stephan Meier, . "Political Economists are Neither Selfish nor Indoctrinated," IEW - Working Papers iewwp069, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  25. Inderst, Roman, 2001. "Screening in a Matching Market," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 68(4), pages 849-68, October.
  26. 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)
  27. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2000. "The Contributions Of The Economics Of Information To Twentieth Century Economics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(4), pages 1441-1478, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  28. King, Robert G. & Plosser, Charles I., 1986. "Money as the mechanism of exchange," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 93-115, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  29. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1991. "A contribution to the pure theory of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 215-235, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  30. Alberto Trejos, 1997. "Incentives to produce quality and the liquidity of money (*)," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 355-365.
  31. Reiner Eichenberger & Bruno S. Frey, . "Europe's Eminent Economists: A Quantitative Analysis," IEW - Working Papers iewwp057, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  32. Berentsen, Aleksander & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2002. "On the efficiency of monetary exchange: how divisibility of money matters," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 1621-1649, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  33. Peter A.G. VanBergeijk & Jan Marc Berk, . "The Lucas Critique in Practice: An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of European Monetary Integration on the Term Structure," IEW - Working Papers iewwp082, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  34. Albrecht Ritschl & Ulrich Woitek, . "Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? A Bayesian VAR Analysis for the U.S. Economy," IEW - Working Papers iewwp050, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  35. Aleksander Berentsen & Guillaume Rocheteau, . "Money and the Gains from Trade," IEW - Working Papers iewwp100, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
    • Aleksander Berentsen & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2003. "Money and the Gains from Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(1), pages 263-297, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  36. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2001. "Beyond Bentham -- Measuring Procedural Utility," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  37. Iris Bohnet & Bruno S. Frey & Steffen Huck, . "More Order with Less Law: On Contract Enforcement, Trust, and Crowding," IEW - Working Papers iewwp052, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
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. Manolis Galenianos & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & Nicola Persico, 2009. "A Search-Theoretic Model of the Retail Market for Illicit Drugs," NBER Working Papers 14980, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Randall Wright, 2005. "Introduction to "Models of Monetary Economies II: The Next Generation"," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Oct, pages 2-9.
    Other versions:
  3. Miquel Faig & Belen Jerez, 2005. "Inflation, Prices, And Information In Competitive Search," Economics Working Papers we051708, Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2008. "Money and competing assets under private information," Working Paper 0802, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  5. Aleksander Berentsen & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2002. "Money in Bilateral Trade," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 138(IV), pages 489-506, December. [Downloadable!]
  6. 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!]
  7. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2009. "A monetary approach to asset liquidity," Working Paper 0901, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  8. Eduardo Giménez, 2007. "On the positive fundamental value of money with short-sale constraints," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 455-469, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Richard Dutu & Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2005. "On the recognizability of money," Working Paper 0512, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? IDEAS also indexes books.

This page was last updated on 2009-12-3.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.