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An Economy with Personal Currency: Theory and Experimental Evidence

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Abstract

Is personal currency issued by participants sufficient to operate an economy efficiently, with no outside or government money? Sahi and Yao (1989) and Sorin (1996) constructed a strategic market game to prove that this is possible. We conduct an experimental game in which each agent issues her personal IOUs, and a costless efficient clearinghouse adjusts the exchange rates among them so the markets always clear. The results suggest that if the information system and clearing are so good as to preclude moral hazard, any form of information asymmetry, and need for trust, the economy operates efficiently at any price level without government money. These conditions cannot reasonably be expected to hold in natural settings. In a second set of treatments when agents have the option of not delivering on their promises, a high enough penalty for non-delivery is necessary to ensure an efficient market; a lower penalty leads to inefficient, even collapsing, markets due to moral hazard.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Angerer & Juergen Huber & Martin Shubik & Shyam Sunder, 2007. "An Economy with Personal Currency: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1622, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Mar 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1622
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    Cited by:

    1. Karim Jamal & Michael Maier & Shyam Sunder, 2017. "Simple Agents, Intelligent Markets," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 49(4), pages 653-675, April.
    2. Huber, Jürgen & Shubik, Martin & Sunder, Shyam, 2014. "Sufficiency of an outside bank and a default penalty to support the value of fiat money: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 317-337.
    3. Martin Shubik, 2012. "Mathematical Institutional Economics," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1882, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    4. Shubik, Martin & Sudderth, William D., 2015. "From General Equilibrium to Schumpeter," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 269-282.
    5. Dmitry Levando, 2012. "A Survey Of Strategic Market Games," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 57(194), pages 63-106, July - Se.
    6. Karim Jamal & Michael Maier & Shyam Sunder, 2012. "Decoupling Markets and Individuals: Rational Expectations Equilibrium Outcomes from Information Dissemination among Boundedly-Rational Traders," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1868, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    7. Thomas Quint & Martin Shubik, 2015. "The demonetization of gold: transactions and the change in control," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 109-149, February.
    8. Martin Shubik, 2016. "Three Essays on the Theory of Money and Financial Institutions Essay 2: The Exchange Economy, Money, and Markets," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2055, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    9. Shyam Sunder, 2020. "Rational order from ‘irrational’ actions," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 19(2), pages 317-321, November.

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    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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