IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecm/emetrp/v77y2009i2p363-402.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Innovation and the Transactions Demand for Cash

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando Alvarez
  • Francesco Lippi

Abstract

We document cash management patterns for households that are at odds with the predictions of deterministic inventory models that abstract from precautionary motives. We extend the Baumol-Tobin cash inventory model to a dynamic environment that allows for the possibility of withdrawing cash at random times at a low cost. This modification introduces a precautionary motive for holding cash and naturally captures developments in withdrawal technology, such as the increasing diffusion of bank branches and ATM terminals. We characterize the solution of the model, which qualitatively reproduces several empirical patterns. We estimate the structural parameters using micro data and show that quantitatively the model captures important economic patterns. The estimates are used to quantify the expenditure and interest rate elasticity of money demand, the impact of financial innovation on money demand, the welfare cost of inflation, and the benefit of ATM ownership. Copyright 2009 The Econometric Society.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Alvarez & Francesco Lippi, 2009. "Financial Innovation and the Transactions Demand for Cash," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(2), pages 363-402, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:ecm:emetrp:v:77:y:2009:i:2:p:363-402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.3982/ECTA7451
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Humphrey, David B., 2004. "Replacement of cash by cards in US consumer payments," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 211-225.
    2. Lippi, Francesco & Secchi, Alessandro, 2006. "Technological change and the demand for currency: An analysis with household data," CEPR Discussion Papers 6023, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Orazio P. Attanasio & Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2002. "The Demand for Money, Financial Innovation, and the Welfare Cost of Inflation: An Analysis with Household Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 317-351, April.
    4. Robert E. Lucas, 2001. "Inflation and Welfare," International Economic Association Series, in: Axel Leijonhufvud (ed.), Monetary Theory as a Basis for Monetary Policy, chapter 4, pages 96-142, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Thomas F. Cooley & Gary D. Hansen, 1991. "The welfare costs of moderate inflations," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 483-518.
    6. George M. Constantinides & Scott F. Richard, 1978. "Existence of Optimal Simple Policies for Discounted-Cost Inventory and Cash Management in Continuous Time," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 620-636, August.
    7. Jacob A. Frenkel & Boyan Jovanovic, 1980. "On Transactions and Precautionary Demand for Money," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(1), pages 25-43.
    8. Luca Casolaro & Leonardo Gambacorta & Luigi Guiso, 2005. "Regulation, formal and informal enforcement and the development of the household loan market. Lessons from Italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 560, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    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. Fernando Alvarez & Francesco Lippi & Roberto Robatto, 2019. "Cost of Inflation in Inventory Theoretical Models," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 32, pages 206-226, April.
    2. Erosa, Andres & Ventura, Gustavo, 2002. "On inflation as a regressive consumption tax," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 761-795, May.
    3. Alvarez, Fernando & Lippi, Francesco, 2013. "The demand of liquid assets with uncertain lumpy expenditures," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 753-770.
    4. Bar-Ilan, Avner & Marion, Nancy, 2013. "Demand for cash with intra-period endogenous consumption," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 2668-2678.
    5. Lippi, Francesco & Secchi, Alessandro, 2006. "Technological change and the demand for currency: An analysis with household data," CEPR Discussion Papers 6023, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Baccarin, Stefano, 2009. "Optimal impulse control for a multidimensional cash management system with generalized cost functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(1), pages 198-206, July.
    7. Aruoba, S. Boragan & Waller, Christopher J. & Wright, Randall, 2011. "Money and capital," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 98-116, March.
    8. Shiratsuka, Shigenori, 2001. "Is There a Desirable Rate of Inflation? A Theoretical and Empirical Survey," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 19(2), pages 49-83, May.
    9. Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2003. "Optimal Monetary Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(4), pages 825-860.
    10. Columba, Francesco, 2009. "Narrow money and transaction technology: New disaggregated evidence," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 312-325, July.
    11. Benchimol, Jonathan & Qureshi, Irfan, 2020. "Time-varying money demand and real balance effects," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 197-211.
    12. Finocchiaro, Daria & Lombardo, Giovanni & Mendicino, Caterina & Weil, Philippe, 2018. "Optimal inflation with corporate taxation and financial constraints," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 18-31.
    13. Andrea Mercatanti & Fan Li, 2017. "Do debit cards decrease cash demand?: causal inference and sensitivity analysis using principal stratification," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 66(4), pages 759-776, August.
    14. Franz Seitz & Julian von Landesberger, 2014. "Household Money Holdings in the Euro Area: An Explorative Investigation," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(2), pages 83-115, November.
    15. Aleksander Berentsen & Samuel Huber & Alessandro Marchesiani, 2015. "Financial Innovations, Money Demand, and the Welfare Cost of Inflation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(S2), pages 223-261, June.
    16. Pedro Teles & Harald Uhlig & João Valle e Azevedo, 2016. "Is Quantity Theory Still Alive?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 442-464, March.
    17. Gregor W. Smith, 2006. "The spectre of deflation: a review of empirical evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1041-1072, November.
    18. Pedro de Araujo, 2015. "Calculating Welfare Costs Of Inflation In A Search Model With Preference Heterogeneity: A Calibration Exercise," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 14-29, January.
    19. Rubens Penha Cysne, 2009. "Bailey's Measure of the Welfare Costs of Inflation as a General‐Equilibrium Measure," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(2‐3), pages 451-459, March.
    20. John Ashworth & David Barlow & Lynne Evans, 2014. "Sectoral Money Demand Behaviour and the Welfare Cost of Inflation in the UK," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82(6), pages 732-750, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

    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:ecm:emetrp:v:77:y:2009:i:2:p:363-402. 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 Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essssea.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.