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Can government gold be put to better use?: Qualitative and quantitative policies

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Listed:
  • Dale W. Henderson
  • John S. Irons
  • Stephen W. Salant
  • Sebastian Thomas

Abstract

Gold has both private uses (depletion uses and service uses) and government uses. It can be obtained from mines with high extraction costs (about $300 per ounce) or from above ground stocks with no extraction costs. Governments still store massive stocks of gold. Making government gold available for private uses through some combination of sales and loans raises welfare from private uses by removing two types of inefficiencies. For given private uses, there is a production inefficiency if costless government gold is withheld while costly gold is taken from mines. There are use inefficiencies if costless government gold is withheld from private users. We assess both qualitatively and quantitatively the gain in welfare and its distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale W. Henderson & John S. Irons & Stephen W. Salant & Sebastian Thomas, 1997. "Can government gold be put to better use?: Qualitative and quantitative policies," International Finance Discussion Papers 582, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:582
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dale W. Henderson & Stephen W. Salant, 1976. "Market anticipations, government policy, and the price of gold," International Finance Discussion Papers 81, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Marion B. Stewart, 1980. "Monopoly and the Intertemporal Production of a Durable Extractable Resource," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 99-111.
    3. Salant, Stephen W & Henderson, Dale W, 1978. "Market Anticipations of Government Policies and the Price of Gold," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(4), pages 627-648, August.
    4. Robert P. Flood & Peter M. Garber, 1987. "Gold Monetization and Gold Discipline," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Robert Z. Aliber (ed.), The Reconstruction of International Monetary Arrangements, chapter 10, pages 183-211, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Harold Hotelling, 1931. "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 137-137.
    6. Malueg, David A & Solow, John L, 1990. "Monopoly Production of Durable Exhaustible Resources," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 57(225), pages 29-47, February.
    7. Karp, Larry S, 1993. "Monopoly Extraction of a Durable Non-renewable Resource: Failure of the Coase Conjecture," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 60(237), pages 1-11, February.
    8. David Levhari & Robert S. Pindyck, 1981. "The Pricing of Durable Exhaustible Resources," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(3), pages 365-377.
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    Cited by:

    1. Henderson, Dale W. & Salant, Stephen W. & Irons, John S. & Thomas, Sebastian, 2007. "The benefits of expediting government gold sales," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 235-258.
    2. Gaudet, Gerard & Salant, Stephen W., 2003. "The effects of periodic quotas limiting the stock of imports of durables," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 402-419, April.

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    Keywords

    Gold; International finance;

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