IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedmqr/y1998iwinp20-26nv.22no.1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A dictum for monetary theory

Author

Listed:
  • Neil Wallace

Abstract

A dictum for monetary theory; This essay argues that monetary theories should not contain an undefined object labeled money. Among existing theories that do not satisfy that dictum are models which assume that real balances are arguments of utility or production functions and models which assume cash-in-advance constraints. A main weakness of theories that do not satisfy the dictum is that they cannot address questions about which objects constitute money. Theories that do satisfy the dictum are those which specify assets by their physical properties and which permit the assets_ role in exchange to be endogenous. The essay briefly describes one such theory, a random matching model with assets that differ according to whether they throw off real dividends. This essay is reprinted, with permission, from the book Foundations of Research in Economics: How Do Economists Do Economics? (ed. Steven Medema and Warren Samuels), Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1996.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Wallace, 1998. "A dictum for monetary theory," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 22(Win), pages 20-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1998:i:win:p:20-26:n:v.22no.1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://minneapolisfed.org/research/qr/qr2212.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://minneapolisfed.org/research/qr/qr2212.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levine, David K., 1991. "Asset trading mechanisms and expansionary policy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 148-164, June.
    2. Paul A. Samuelson, 1958. "An Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest with or without the Social Contrivance of Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(6), pages 467-467.
    3. William J. Baumol, 1952. "The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 66(4), pages 545-556.
    4. 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.
    5. John Kareken & Neil Wallace, 1981. "On the Indeterminacy of Equilibrium Exchange Rates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(2), pages 207-222.
    6. Ostroy, Joseph M, 1973. "The Informational Efficiency of Monetary Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 597-610, September.
    7. Rao Aiyagari, S. & Wallace, Neil & Wright, Randall, 1996. "Coexistence of money and interest-bearing securities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 397-419, June.
    8. Shi Shougong, 1995. "Money and Prices: A Model of Search and Bargaining," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 467-496, December.
    9. Duffie, Darrell, 1990. "Money in general equilibrium theory," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: B. M. Friedman & F. H. Hahn (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 81-100, Elsevier.
    10. S. Rao Aiyagari & Neil Wallace, 1991. "Existence of Steady States with Positive Consumption in the Kiyotaki-Wright Model," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(5), pages 901-916.
    11. Hellwig, Martin F., 1993. "The challenge of monetary theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 215-242, April.
    12. Sargent, Thomas J & Wallace, Neil, 1982. "The Real-Bills Doctrine versus the Quantity Theory: A Reconsideration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1212-1236, December.
    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. Williamson, Stephen D., 2008. "Monetary policy and distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 1038-1053, September.
    2. Lagos, Ricardo, 2010. "Asset prices and liquidity in an exchange economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(8), pages 913-930, November.
    3. Martin, Fernando M., 2011. "On the joint determination of fiscal and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 132-145, March.
    4. Duffy, John, 2001. "Learning to speculate: Experiments with artificial and real agents," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(3-4), pages 295-319, March.
    5. Fernando M. Martin, 2011. "Lagos-Wright vs. Cash-in-Advance: Government Policy Response to War-Expenditure Shocks," 2011 Meeting Papers 745, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Hu, Tai-Wei & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2013. "On the coexistence of money and higher-return assets and its social role," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(6), pages 2520-2560.
    7. Aleksander Berentsen & Gabriele Camera & C hristopher W aller, 2005. "The Distribution Of Money Balances And The Nonneutrality Of Money," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 465-487, May.
    8. Gutierrez, Pedro J., 2006. "Short-run and long-run effects of monetary policy in a general equilibrium model with bank reserves," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 597-621, July.
    9. Stephen D. Williamson & Randall Wright, 2010. "New monetarist economics: methods," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 92(May), pages 265-302.
    10. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    11. Guillaume Rocheteau & Lucie Lebeau & Tai-Wei Hu & Younghwan In, 2018. "Gradual Bargaining in Decentralized Asset Markets," Working Papers 181904, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    12. Camera, G., 2001. "Search, Dealers, and the Terms of Trade," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1140, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    13. Alessandro Marchesiani, 2024. "The essentiality of money in a trading post economy with random matching," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(3), pages 823-836.
    14. D. Aliprantis, C. & Camera, G. & Puzzello, D., 2007. "Anonymous markets and monetary trading," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1905-1928, October.
    15. Sissoko, Carolyn, 2007. "An Idealized View of Financial Intermediation," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 1, pages 1-29.
    16. Allan Hernández, 2008. "Los modelos del dinero endógeno: la evolución de los modelos monetarios de búsqueda," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, November.
    17. Wilfredo Toledo, 2006. "El dinero en los modelos macroeconómicos," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 8(15), pages 97-116, July-Dece.
    18. Camera, Gabriele & Reed, Robert R. & Waller, Christopher J., 2003. "Can monetizing trade lower welfare? An example," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 179-186, November.
    19. Paul De Grauwe & Magdalena Polan, 2014. "Is Inflation always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Exchange Rates and Global Financial Policies, chapter 14, pages 357-382, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Choi, Michael & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2023. "A model of retail banking and the deposits channel of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 127-147.
    21. Ben R. Craig & Christopher J. Waller, 2000. "Dual-currency economies as multiple-payment systems," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q I, pages 2-13.
    22. Gu, Chao & Monnet, Cyril & Nosal, Ed & Wright, Randall, 2023. "Diamond–Dybvig and beyond: On the instability of banking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    23. John Duffy, 1998. "Monetary theory in the laboratory," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Sep, pages 9-26.

    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. Neil Wallace, 1996. "Un precepto para la teoría monetaria," Apuntes. Revista de ciencias sociales, Fondo Editorial, Universidad del Pacífico, vol. 23(39), pages 3-12.
    2. Neil Wallace, 1997. "Absence-of-double-coincidence models of money: a progress report," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 21(Win), pages 2-20.
    3. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "A Microfoundation of Monetary Economics," Working Papers tecipa-211, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    4. Radwanski, Juliusz, 2020. "On the Purchasing Power of Money in an Exchange Economy," MPRA Paper 104244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. 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.
    6. Rao Aiyagari, S. & Wallace, Neil & Wright, Randall, 1996. "Coexistence of money and interest-bearing securities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 397-419, June.
    7. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Rupert, Peter & Shell, Karl & Wright, Randall, 2008. "General equilibrium with nonconvexities and money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 294-317, September.
    8. Kocherlakota, Narayana & Wallace, Neil, 1998. "Incomplete Record-Keeping and Optimal Payment Arrangements," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 272-289, August.
    9. Gabriele Camera & Charles Noussair & Steven Tucker, 2003. "Rate-of-return dominance and efficiency in an experimental economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 22(3), pages 629-660, October.
    10. Stephen D. Williamson & Randall Wright, 2010. "New monetarist economics: methods," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 92(May), pages 265-302.
    11. Narayana R. Kocherlakota & Neil Wallace, 1997. "Optimal allocations with incomplete record-keeping and no commitment," Working Papers 578, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    12. Norman, Thomas W.L., 2020. "The evolution of monetary equilibrium," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 233-239.
    13. Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2006. "The economics of payments," Policy Discussion Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Feb.
    14. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    15. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "Viewpoint: A microfoundation of monetary economics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 39(3), pages 643-688, August.
    16. Ross M. Starr, 2012. "Why is there Money?," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13763.
    17. Rupert, Peter & Schindler, Martin & Wright, Randall, 2001. "Generalized search-theoretic models of monetary exchange," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 605-622, December.
    18. Li, Yiting & Wright, Randall, 1998. "Government Transaction Policy, Media of Exchange, and Prices," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 290-313, August.
    19. Allan Hernández, 2008. "Los modelos del dinero endógeno: la evolución de los modelos monetarios de búsqueda," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, November.
    20. Christian Hellwig, 2002. "Money, Intermediaries, and Cash-in-Advance Constraints (February 2003)," UCLA Economics Online Papers 207, UCLA Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Monetary theory;

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Quantitative Macroeconomics and Real Business Cycles (QM&RBC)

    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:fip:fedmqr:y:1998:i:win:p:20-26:n:v.22no.1. 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: Kate Hansel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfrbmus.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.