IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jmacro/v52y2017icp252-267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the socially optimal density of coin and banknote series: Do production costs really matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Bouhdaoui, Yassine
  • Van Hove, Leo

Abstract

By adding denominations to their coin and banknote series central banks can increase the efficiency of cash payments. In practice, however, they opt for a denominational structure with a relatively low density. The literature holds that this is because of the production costs involved. To test this proposition, we introduce a per-denomination fixed cost into the matching model of Lee et al. (2005) and parameterize the model with data on the production of US dollar banknotes. Our simulations demonstrate that central banks could increase the density of their currency systems beyond the observed level without the efficiency gains for transactors being dwarfed by the additional production costs for the central bank itself. This suggests that the explanation for the low density rather lies with costs incurred by consumers and merchants - and anticipated by central banks - that are not yet in any of the extant models.

Suggested Citation

  • Bouhdaoui, Yassine & Van Hove, Leo, 2017. "On the socially optimal density of coin and banknote series: Do production costs really matter?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 252-267.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:52:y:2017:i:c:p:252-267
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2017.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164070417301751
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jmacro.2017.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carin van der Cruijsen & Lola Hernandez & Nicole Jonker, 2017. "In love with the debit card but still married to cash," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(30), pages 2989-3004, June.
    2. John Bagnall & David Bounie & Kim P. Huynh & Anneke Kosse & Tobias Schmidt & Scott Schuh, 2016. "Consumer Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Comparison with Payment Diary Survey Data," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 1-61, December.
    3. Menzies, Gordon, 2004. "Money to burn, or melt? A cost-benefit analysis of Australian polymer banknotes," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 355-368, December.
    4. Nikolaus Bartzsch & Franz Seitz, 2016. "Cash Holdings in Germany and the Demand for “German” Banknotes: What Role Is There for Cashless Payments?," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Jakub Górka (ed.), Transforming Payment Systems in Europe, chapter 4, pages 111-148, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & Van Hove, L., 2013. "When do plastic bills lower the bill for the central bank? A model and estimates for the U.S," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 45-60.
    6. Garcia-Swartz Daniel D. & Hahn Robert W. & Layne-Farrar Anne, 2006. "The Move Toward a Cashless Society: A Closer Look at Payment Instrument Economics," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-24, June.
    7. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D., 2012. "Efficient payments: How much do they cost for the Central Bank?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1579-1584.
    8. Cramer, J. S., 1983. "Currency by denomination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 12(3-4), pages 299-303.
    9. Knotek II, Edward S., 2008. "Convenient prices, currency, and nominal rigidity: Theory with evidence from newspaper prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1303-1316, October.
    10. Van Hove, Leo, 2015. "Modelling banknote printing costs: of cohorts, generations, and note-years," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 238-249.
    11. Schmiedel, Heiko & Kostova, Gergana & Ruttenberg, Wiebe, 2012. "The social and private costs of retail payment instruments: a European perspective," Occasional Paper Series 137, European Central Bank.
    12. Bartzsch, Nikolaus & Seitz, Franz, 2015. "Cash holdings in Germany and the demand for "German" banknotes: What role for cashless payments?," Weidener Diskussionspapiere 51, University of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden (OTH).
    13. Van Hove, Leo, 2001. "Optimal Denominations for Coins and Bank Notes: In Defense of the Principle of Least Effort," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(4), pages 1015-1021, November.
    14. Manjong Lee & Neil Wallace, 2006. "Optimal divisibility when money is costly to produce," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 9(3), pages 541-556, July.
    15. Carin van der Cruijsen & Lola Hernandez & Nicole Jonker, 2017. "In love with the debit card but still married to cash," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(30), pages 2989-3004, June.
    16. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & François, A., 2014. "Convenient prices, cash payments and price rigidity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 329-337.
    17. Bruno Karoubi & R駩s Chenavaz, 2015. "Prices for cash and cash for prices? Theory and evidence on convenient pricing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(38), pages 4102-4115, August.
    18. Massoud, Nadia, 2005. "How should Central Banks determine and control their bank note inventory?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 3099-3119, December.
    19. Lee, Manjong, 2010. "Carrying cost of money and real effects of denomination structure," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 326-337, March.
    20. Franses, Philip Hans & Kippers, Jeanine, 2007. "An empirical analysis of euro cash payments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1985-1997, November.
    21. Edward Kim & Terence Turton, 2014. "The Next Generation Banknote Project," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 1-12, March.
    22. Manjong Lee & Neil Wallace & Tao Zhu, 2005. "Modeling Denomination Structures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 949-960, May.
    23. VAN HOVE, Leo, 2007. "Central Banks and Payment Instruments: a Serious Case of Schizophrenia," MPRA Paper 5281, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    24. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & Van Hove, L., 2011. "Central banks and their banknote series: The efficiency-cost trade-off," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1482-1488, July.
    25. Schmiedel, Heiko & Kostova, Gergana & Ruttenberg, Wiebe, 2012. "The social and private costs of retail payment instruments: a European perspective," Occasional Paper Series 137, European Central Bank.
    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. Prescott, Brian C. & Shy, Oz, 2023. "Cash payments and the penny policy debate," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 80-94.

    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. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D., 2012. "Efficient payments: How much do they cost for the Central Bank?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1579-1584.
    2. Prescott, Brian C. & Shy, Oz, 2023. "Cash payments and the penny policy debate," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 80-94.
    3. Shy, Oz, 2020. "How currency denomination and the ATM affect the way we pay," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Van Hove, Leo, 2015. "Modelling banknote printing costs: of cohorts, generations, and note-years," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 238-249.
    5. Chenavaz, Régis & Drouard, Joeffrey & Escobar, Octavio R. & Karoubi, Bruno, 2018. "Convenience pricing in online retailing: Evidence from Amazon.com," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 127-139.
    6. Bruno Karoubi & R駩s Chenavaz, 2015. "Prices for cash and cash for prices? Theory and evidence on convenient pricing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(38), pages 4102-4115, August.
    7. Joshi Harit & Mukherjee, Saral, 2017. "Transitions in currency denomination structure as supply disruption and demand distortion: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Bullwhip," IIMA Working Papers WP 2017-05-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    8. Philip Hans Franses & Max Welz, 2019. "Cash Use of the Taiwan Dollar: Is It Efficient? †," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-6, January.
    9. Shy, Oz, 2021. "Cashless stores and cash users," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 622-638.
    10. Chen, Heng & Huynh, Kim P. & Shy, Oz, 2019. "Cash versus card: Payment discontinuities and the burden of holding coins," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 192-201.
    11. Arango-Arango, Carlos A. & Bouhdaoui, Yassine & Bounie, David & Eschelbach, Martina & Hernandez, Lola, 2018. "Cash remains top-of-wallet! International evidence from payment diaries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 38-48.
    12. Yulia Titova & Delia Cornea & Sébastien Lemeunier, 2021. "What Factors Keep Cash Alive in the European Union?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 291-317, August.
    13. Bruna Bruno & Marisa Faggini, 2022. "The cashless man: do preferences matter?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 1525-1544, November.
    14. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & Van Hove, L., 2011. "Central banks and their banknote series: The efficiency-cost trade-off," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1482-1488, July.
    15. Schmidt-Dengler, Philipp & Stix, Helmut & Huynh, Kim P., 2014. "The Role of Card Acceptance in the Transaction Demand for Money," CEPR Discussion Papers 10183, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Chris Stewart & Iris Chan & Crystal Ossolinski & David Halperin & Paul Ryan, 2014. "The Evolution of Payment Costs in Australia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2014-14, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    17. Hasan, Iftekhar & Martikainen, Emmi & Takalo, Tuomas, 2014. "Promoting efficient retail payments in Europe," Research Discussion Papers 20/2014, Bank of Finland.
    18. Hasan, Iftekhar & Martikainen, Emmi & Takalo, Tuomas, 2015. "Promoting efficient retail payments in Europe," Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 8(4), pages 395-406, January.
    19. Morscher, Christof & Schlothmann, Daniel & Horsch, Andreas, 2017. "Bargeld quo vadis?," Freiberg Working Papers 2017/01, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    20. Codruta Rusu & Helmut Stix, 2017. "Cash and card payments – recent results of the Austrian payment diary survey," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/17, pages 1-35.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Denominational structure; Banknotes; Central bank; Social cost; Matching model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E47 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

    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:eee:jmacro:v:52:y:2017:i:c:p:252-267. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622617 .

    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.