IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bok/wpaper/2026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Central Bank Digital Currency, Tax Evasion, Inflation Tax, and Central Bank Independence

Author

Listed:
  • Ohik Kwon

    (Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea)

  • Seungduck Lee

    (Department of Economics, Sungkyunkwan University)

  • Jaevin Park

    (Department of Economics, University of Mississippi)

Abstract

Can introducing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) improve social welfare? We construct a dual currency model to study whether introducing CBDC with a recordkeeping technology can reduce tax evasion incentives in cash transactions, and further achieve a better allocation than in a cash-only economy. Tax evasion does not occur in an economy only with an inflation tax. However, if imposing a positive sales tax is inevitable for central bank independence, there arises an inefficiency associated with tax evasion in cash transactions. Introducing CBDC with positive interest can reduce this inefficiency and thus improve welfare by discouraging tax evasion, and rewarding tax payments.

Suggested Citation

  • Ohik Kwon & Seungduck Lee & Jaevin Park, 2020. "Central Bank Digital Currency, Tax Evasion, Inflation Tax, and Central Bank Independence," Working Papers 2020-26, Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea.
    • Handle: RePEc:bok:wpaper:2026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bok.or.kr/ucms/cmmn/file/fileDown.do?menuNo=500791&atchFileId=FILE_000000000020826&fileSn=1
    File Function: Working Paper, 2020
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin, Fernando M., 2015. "Debt, inflation and central bank independence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 129-150.
    2. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    3. Chari, V.V. & Kehoe, Patrick J., 1999. "Optimal fiscal and monetary policy," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 26, pages 1671-1745, Elsevier.
    4. Vegh, Carlos A., 1989. "The optimal inflation tax in the presence of currency substitution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 139-146, July.
    5. Lucas, Robert Jr. & Stokey, Nancy L., 1983. "Optimal fiscal and monetary policy in an economy without capital," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 55-93.
    6. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
    7. Todd Keister & Daniel Sanches, 2023. "Should Central Banks Issue Digital Currency?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 404-431.
    8. Brunnermeier, Markus K. & Niepelt, Dirk, 2019. "On the equivalence of private and public money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 27-41.
    9. Zhang, Cathy, 2014. "An information-based theory of international currency," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 286-301.
    10. Thomas J. Sargent & Neil Wallace, 1984. "Some Unpleasant Monetarist Arithmetic," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Brian Griffiths & Geoffrey E. Wood (ed.), Monetarism in the United Kingdom, pages 15-41, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Stephen Williamson, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Welfare and Policy Implications," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(11), pages 2829-2861.
    12. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    13. Christian Barontini & Henry Holden, 2019. "Proceeding with caution - a survey on central bank digital currency," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 101.
    14. Charles M. Kahn & Francisco Rivadeneyra & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2018. "Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?," Staff Working Papers 18-58, Bank of Canada.
    15. Gomis-Porqueras, Pedro & Peralta-Alva, Adrian & Waller, Christopher, 2014. "The shadow economy as an equilibrium outcome," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-19.
    16. Boragan Aruoba, S. & Rocheteau, Guillaume & Waller, Christopher, 2007. "Bargaining and the value of money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2636-2655, November.
    17. Carl E. Walsh, 2011. "Central Bank Independence Revisited," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 30(1), pages 18-22, March.
    18. Alesina, Alberto & Summers, Lawrence H, 1993. "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 151-162, May.
    19. Sargent, Thomas J, 1982. "Beyond Demand and Supply Curves in Macroeconomics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 382-389, May.
    20. Nicolini, Juan Pablo, 1998. "Tax evasion and the optimal inflation tax," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 215-232, February.
    21. Jonathan Chiu & Janet Hua Jiang & Seyed Mohammadreza Davoodalhosseini & Yu Zhu, 2019. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Banking," 2019 Meeting Papers 862, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    22. J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    23. Koreshkova, Tatyana A., 2006. "A quantitative analysis of inflation as a tax on the underground economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 773-796, May.
    24. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1990. "Supply-Side Economics: An Analytical Review," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(2), pages 293-316, April.
    25. Young Sik Kim & Ohik Kwon, 2019. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Financial Stability," Working Papers 2019-6, Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea.
    26. Michael D. Bordo & Andrew T. Levin, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 23711, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Santiago Fernández de Lis & Olga Gouveia, 2019. "Central Bank digital currencies: features, options, pros and cons," Working Papers 19/04, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    28. Walter Engert & Ben Fung, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Motivations and Implications," Discussion Papers 17-16, Bank of Canada.
    29. Ping He & Lixin Huang & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money And Banking In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 637-670, May.
    30. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    31. Max Raskin & David Yermack, 2016. "Digital Currencies, Decentralized Ledgers, and the Future of Central Banking," NBER Working Papers 22238, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Raphael Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the central bank digital currencies: drivers, approaches and technologies," BIS Working Papers 880, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Kwami Ahiabenu, 2022. "A Comparative Study of the Design Frameworks of the Ghanaian and Nigerian Central Banks’ Digital Currencies (CBDC)," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Korhan K. Gokmenoglu & Aysel Amir, 2023. "Investigating the Determinants of the Shadow Economy: The Baltic Region," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(2), pages 181-198, March.
    4. Bajaj, Ayushi & Damodaran, Nikhil, 2022. "Consumer payment choice and the heterogeneous impact of India’s demonetization," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Ferry Syarifuddin & Toni Bakhtiar, 2021. "Monetary Policy Strategy In The Presence Of Central Bank Digital Currency," Working Papers WP/09/2021, Bank Indonesia.

    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. Ohik Kwon & Seungduck Lee & Jaevin Park, 2022. "Central bank digital currency, tax evasion, and inflation tax," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1497-1519, October.
    2. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    3. Dionysopoulos, Lambis & Marra, Miriam & Urquhart, Andrew, 2024. "Central bank digital currencies: A critical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Aruoba, S. Borağan, 2021. "Institutions, tax evasion, and optimal policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 212-229.
    6. Janet Hua & Yu Zhu, 2021. "Monetary Policy Pass-Through with Central Bank Digital Currency," Staff Working Papers 21-10, Bank of Canada.
    7. Marcelo A. T. Aragão, 2021. "A Few Things You Wanted to Know about the Economics of CBDCs, but were Afraid to Model: a survey of what we can learn from who has done," Working Papers Series 554, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    8. Grodecka-Messi, Anna & Zhang, Xin, 2023. "Private bank money vs central bank money: A historical lesson for CBDC introduction," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Assenmacher, Katrin & Bitter, Lea & Ristiniemi, Annukka, 2023. "CBDC and business cycle dynamics in a New Monetarist New Keynesian model," Working Paper Series 2811, European Central Bank.
    10. Alexandra Mitschke, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currencies and Monetary Policy Effectiveness in the Euro Area," Working Papers Dissertations 74, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    11. Rehman, Mubeen Abdur & Irfan, Muhammad & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Lucey, Brian M. & Karim, Sitara, 2023. "Macro-financial implications of central bank digital currencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Li, Jiaqi, 2023. "Predicting the demand for central bank digital currency: A structural analysis with survey data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 73-85.
    13. Tercero-Lucas, David, 2023. "Central bank digital currencies and financial stability in a modern monetary system," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Williamson, Stephen D., 2022. "Central bank digital currency and flight to safety," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    15. Schilling, Linda & Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Uhlig, Harald, 2024. "Central bank digital currency: When price and bank stability collide," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    16. Charles M. Kahn & Maarten van Oordt & Yu Zhu, 2021. "Best Before? Expiring Central Bank Digital Currency and Loss Recovery," Staff Working Papers 21-67, Bank of Canada.
    17. Zijian Wang, 2023. "Money Laundering and the Privacy Design of Central Bank Digital Currency," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 604-632, December.
    18. Jooyong Jun & Eunjung Yeo, 2021. "Central bank digital currency, loan supply, and bank failure risk: a microeconomic approach," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Barrdear, John & Kumhof, Michael, 2022. "The macroeconomics of central bank digital currencies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    20. Magin, Jana Anjali & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of different CBDC regimes in an economy with a heterogeneous household sector," DICE Discussion Papers 396, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cash; Central Bank Digital Currency; Monetary Policy; Inflation Tax; Tax Evasion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    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:bok:wpaper:2026. 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: Economic Research Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imbokkr.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.