IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecj/econjl/v113y2003i484p147-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adaptive Learning and the Transition to Fiat Money

Author

Listed:
  • George Selgin

    (University of Georgia)

Abstract

This article explores some implications of adaptive learning for monetary evolution using a search--theoretic framework that allows for media--of--exchange network effects. Adaptive learning precludes any voluntary transition to a fiat standard from a non--monetary state of nature and can account for the historically--observed tendency for fiat monetary standards to emerge only following the prior appearance of commodity money and the widespread employment of redeemable banknotes. Adaptive learning can also account for governments" frequent resort to coercive measures to force a switch to fiat money and for their ability to affect such a switch even when doing so is not Pareto optimal. Copyright Royal Economic Society 2003.

Suggested Citation

  • George Selgin, 2003. "Adaptive Learning and the Transition to Fiat Money," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(484), pages 147-165, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:113:y:2003:i:484:p:147-165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aiyagari, S. Rao & Wallace, Neil, 1997. "Government Transaction Policy, the Medium of Exchange, and Welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Gordon Tullock, 1957. "Paper Money-A Cycle In Cathay," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 9(3), pages 393-407, April.
    3. Selgin, George A, 1994. "On Ensuring the Acceptability of a New Fiat Money," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 26(4), pages 808-826, November.
    4. Arthur, W Brian, 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 116-131, March.
    5. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1989. "On Money as a Medium of Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 927-954, August.
    6. Ritter, Joseph A, 1995. "The Transition from Barter to Fiat Money," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 134-149, March.
    7. Freeman, Scott J, 1989. "Fiat Money as a Medium of Exchange," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(1), pages 137-151, February.
    8. Ellison, Glenn & Fudenberg, Drew, 1993. "Rules of Thumb for Social Learning," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 612-643, August.
    9. David, Paul A, 1985. "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 332-337, May.
    10. Grossman, Herschel I., 1991. "Monetary economics : A review essay," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 323-345, October.
    11. Jones, Robert A, 1976. "The Origin and Development of Media of Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 757-775, August.
    12. Dowd, Kevin & Greenaway, David, 1993. "Currency Competition, Network Externalities and Switching Costs: Towards an Alternative View of Optimum Currency Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(420), pages 1180-1189, September.
    13. Iwai, Katsuhito, 1996. "The bootstrap theory of money: A search-theoretic foundation of monetary economics," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 451-477, December.
    14. Kreps, David M., 1990. "Game Theory and Economic Modelling," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198283812.
    15. Friedman, Milton, 1986. "The Resource Cost of Irredeemable Paper Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 642-647, June.
    16. Hayashi, Fumio & Matsui, Akihiko, 1996. "A Model of Fiat Money and Barter," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 111-132, January.
    17. Selgin, George & White, Lawrence H, 1999. "A Fiscal Theory of Government's Role in Money," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(1), pages 154-165, January.
    18. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    19. Lui, Francis T, 1983. "Cagan's Hypothesis and the First Nationwide Inflation of Paper Money in World History," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(6), pages 1067-1074, December.
    20. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1993. "A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 63-77, March.
    21. Angela Redish, 1993. "Anchors Aweigh: The Transition from Commodity Money to Fiat Money in Western Economies," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 26(4), pages 777-795, November.
    22. Marimon, Ramon & McGrattan, Ellen & Sargent, Thomas J., 1990. "Money as a medium of exchange in an economy with artificially intelligent agents," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 329-373, May.
    23. Alchian, Armen A, 1977. "Why Money?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 133-140, February.
    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. Willem H. Buiter, 2003. "James Tobin: An Appreciation of his Contribution to Economics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(491), pages 585-631, November.
    2. Guang-Zhen Sun, 2005. "A Review Of Selected Literature In The Economics Of Division Of Labor From 5th Century To Wwii: Part I," Monash Economics Working Papers 01/05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. Mileva, Elitza & Siegfried, Nikolaus, 2012. "Oil market structure, network effects and the choice of currency for oil invoicing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 385-394.
    4. William Luther, 2014. "Evenly rotating economy: A new modeling technique for an old equilibrium construct," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 403-417, December.
    5. Samuel E. Vazquez, 2009. "Scale Invariance, Bounded Rationality and Non-Equilibrium Economics," Papers 0902.3840, arXiv.org.
    6. Mikael Stenkula, 2003. "Carl Menger and the network theory of money," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 587-606.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/11496 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Zeira, Joseph & Levintal, Oren, 2009. "The Evolution of Paper Money," CEPR Discussion Papers 7362, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Dror Goldberg, 2012. "The tax-foundation theory of fiat money," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 50(2), pages 489-497, June.
    10. Diarmid Weir, 2013. "Fiat Money, Individual Rationality and Production," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 573-590, November.
    11. Goodhart, Charles A. E., 1998. "The two concepts of money: implications for the analysis of optimal currency areas," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 407-432, August.
    12. Walter blocher & Andreas Hanl & Jochen Michaelis, 2017. "Revolutionieren Kryptowährungen die Zahlungssysteme?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201748, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    13. William J. Luther, 2018. "Is Bitcoin Intrinsically Worthless?," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Spring 20), pages 31-45.
    14. Selgin, George, 2015. "Synthetic commodity money," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 92-99.
    15. William Luther, 2016. "Mises and the moderns on the inessentiality of money in equilibrium," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Ahmed Mehedi Nizam, 2023. "An analysis of transnational transfer of wealth through cross-border financial transactions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, January.
    17. Eduardo Ferraciolli & Tanya Araújo, 2023. "Agent-based Modeling and the Sociology of Money: a Framework for the Study of Coordination and Plurality," Working Papers REM 2023/0285, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    18. Hendrickson, Joshua R. & Luther, William J., 2017. "Banning bitcoin," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 188-195.
    19. Nizam, Ahmed Mehedi, 2021. "Redistribution of wealth through cross border financial transactions: A closer look," MPRA Paper 109374, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Tyler Watts, 2011. "The Dollar Quiz: A Hands-On Approach to Monetary Debasement and Inflation," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 27(Fall 2011), pages 145-158.

    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. Starr, Ross M., 2003. "Monetary general equilibrium with transaction costs," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 335-354, June.
    2. Howitt, Peter & Clower, Robert, 2000. "The emergence of economic organization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 55-84, January.
    3. Peter Rupert & Martin Schindler & Andrei Shevchenko & Randall Wright, 2000. "The search-theoretic approach to monetary economics: a primer," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q IV, pages 10-28.
    4. Ross M. Starr, 2012. "Why is there Money?," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13763.
    5. Starr, Ross M., 2002. "Existence of Uniqueness of "Money" in General Equilibrium: Natural Monopoly in the Most Liquid Asset," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt660465rm, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    6. Starr, Ross M., 2001. "Why Is There Money? Endogenous Derivation of "Money" as the Most Liquid Asset: A Class of Examples," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt2rt3k4r7, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    7. William Luther, 2016. "Mises and the moderns on the inessentiality of money in equilibrium," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, March.
    8. Alexander W. Salter & William J. Luther, 2014. "Synthesizing State and Spontaneous Order Theories of Money," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Entangled Political Economy, volume 18, pages 161-178, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    9. Starr, Ross M., 2000. "Why is there Money? Endogenous Derivation of "Money" as the Most Liquid Asset: A Class of Examples," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt9bm927sh, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    10. Goodhart, Charles A. E., 1998. "The two concepts of money: implications for the analysis of optimal currency areas," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 407-432, August.
    11. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2016. "Introduction to the symposium issue on money and liquidity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-9.
    12. E. Samanidou & E. Zschischang & D. Stauffer & T. Lux, 2001. "Microscopic Models of Financial Markets," Papers cond-mat/0110354, arXiv.org.
    13. Andrés Álvarez & Vincent Bignon, 2013. "L. Walras and C. Menger: two ways on the path of modern monetary theory," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 89-124, February.
    14. van Ees, Hans & Garretsen, Harry, 1995. "Existence and stability of conventions and institutions in a monetary economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 275-288, October.
    15. Dubey, Pradeep & Sahi, Siddhartha & Shubik, Martin, 2018. "Money as minimal complexity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 432-451.
    16. Pradeep Dubey & Siddhartha Sahi & Martin Shubik, 2014. "Minimally complex exchange mechanisms: Emergence of prices, markets, and money," Department of Economics Working Papers 14-01, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    17. Lamarche-Perrin, Alex & Orléan, André & Jensen, Pablo, 2018. "Coexistence of several currencies in presence of increasing returns to adoption," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 496(C), pages 612-619.
    18. Mikael Stenkula, 2003. "Carl Menger and the network theory of money," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 587-606.
    19. Xavier Cuadras‐Morató, 2004. "Fiat Money in a Search‐Theoretical Model with Generalist Consumers," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(1), pages 152-166, January.
    20. Sébastien LOTZ & Guillaume ROCHETEAU, 2000. "Launching of a New Currency in a Simple Random Matching Model," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 00.10, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.

    More about this item

    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:ecj:econjl:v:113:y:2003:i:484:p:147-165. 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: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/resssea.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.