IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpma/0004031.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Functional Finance: What, Why, and How?

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Bell

    (University of Missouri at Kansas City)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the theory of functional finance, as explicated by its originator, Abba P. Lerner, is put forward. Second, the reader is introduced to the use, standard in money and banking texts, of T-account balance sheet entries. Although no important conclusions will rest solely on the reader's ability to cope with these entries, comfort with their use will ease the exposition. An appendix therefore is provided to assist those not yet exposed to this method of recording balance sheet changes and for those who merely wish to refresh themselves. The third purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the need for policies governed by the principles of functional finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Bell, 2000. "Functional Finance: What, Why, and How?," Macroeconomics 0004031, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0004031
    Note: Type of Document - Adobe Acrobat PDF; prepared on IBM PC; to print on PostScript; pages: 30; figures: included
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/mac/papers/0004/0004031.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ludvigson, Sydney, 1996. "The macroeconomic effects of government debt in a stochastic growth model," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 25-45, August.
    2. Smith, Bruce D. & Villamil, Anne P., 1998. "Government borrowing using bonds with randomly determined returns: Welfare improving randomization in the context of deficit finance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 351-370, April.
    3. L. Randall Wray, 1998. "Understanding Modern Money," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1668.
    4. L. F. G. De Cazaux, 1965. "On The Budget," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 264-265.
    5. David J. Ott & Attiat F. Ott, 1965. "Budget Balance And Equilibrium Income," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 20(1), pages 71-77, March.
    6. Mathew Forstater, 1997. "Selective Use of Discretionary Public Employment and Economic Flexibility," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_218, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Mathew Forstater, 1999. "Introduction to Symposium on the European Economic and Monetary Union," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 31-34, Winter.
    8. Trostel, Philip A., 1993. "The nonequivalence between deficits and distortionary taxation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 207-227, April.
    9. George Akerlof & William Dickens & George Perry, 1996. "Low Inflation or No Inflation: Should the Federal Reserve Pursue Complete Price Stability?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(5), pages 11-17, September.
    10. Wynne Godley, 1999. "Seven Unsustainable Processes: Medium-Term Prospects and Policies for the United States and the World," Economics Strategic Analysis Archive 99-10, Levy Economics Institute.
    11. Victoria Chick, 1983. "Macroeconomics after Keynes: A Reconsideration of the General Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262530457, December.
    12. Blinder, Alan S. & Solow, Robert M., 1973. "Does fiscal policy matter?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 319-337.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Abba Lerner’s flawed ideas on interest rates.
      by Ralph Musgrave in Ralphonomics on 2011-03-29 12:31:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Constantinos Alexiou & Joseph G. Nellis, 2017. "Cyclical Multiplier and Zero Low Bound Effects of Government Expenditure on Economic Growth: Evidence for Greece," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 119-133, June.
    2. Pavlina R. Tcherneva, 2008. "The Return of Fiscal Policy: Can the New Developments in the New Economic Consensus Be Reconciled with the Post-Keynesian View?," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_539, Levy Economics Institute.

    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. William F. Mitchell & Warren B. Mosler, 2001. "Fiscal Policy and the Job Guarantee," CEPR Discussion Papers 441, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. Wynne Godley, 1999. "Seven Unsustainable Processes: Medium-Term Prospects and Policies for the United States and the World," Economics Strategic Analysis Archive 99-10, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    4. Spector, Lee C, 1999. "Macroeconomic Models and the Determination of Crowding Out," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 54(1-2), pages 84-98.
    5. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2019. "Trends and fads in macroeconomic dynamics," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 179-197, December.
    6. Claudio Dos Santos, 2004. "Keynesian Theorizing During Hard Times: SStock-Flow Consistent Models as an Unexplored 'Frontier' of Keynesian Macroeconomics'," Macroeconomics 0405023, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 1980. "Monetary and Fiscal Policy in a Long‐Run Macroeconomic Model," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 56(153), pages 158-170, June.
    8. Lehment, Harmen, 1983. "The macroeconomic implications of public sector deficits," Kiel Working Papers 168, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. Marc Lavoie, 2001. "Endogenous Money in a Coherent Stock-Flow Framework," Macroeconomics 0103007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Claudio H. Dos Santos, 2004. "Keynesian Theorizing During Hard Times: Stock-Flow Consistent Models as an Unexplored 'Frontier' of Keynesian Macroeconomics," Method and Hist of Econ Thought 0406001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Yeva Nersisyan & Flavia Dantas, 2017. "Rethinking liquidity creation: Banks, shadow banks and the elasticity of finance," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 279-299, July.
    12. Klausinger, Hansjörg, 2000. "Walras' law and the IS-LM model. A tale of progress and regress," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 69, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    13. Marcel, Mario, 2001. "Balance Estructural del Gobierno Central. Metodología y Estimaciones para Chile [Structural Bazlance of Central Government. Methodology and estimates for Chile]," MPRA Paper 43338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Richard Werner, 2004. "Why has Fiscal Policy Disappointed in Japan?," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2004 9, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    15. Thomas I. Palley, 2015. "Money, Fiscal Policy, and Interest Rates: A Critique of Modern Monetary Theory," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 1-23, January.
    16. Yasuo Kofuji, 1984. "On the Efficacy of Fiscal Policy and Price Level Changes," Public Finance Review, , vol. 12(2), pages 167-181, April.
    17. Thomas I. Palley, 2015. "The Critics of Modern Money Theory (MMT) are Right," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 45-61, January.
    18. Willem H. Buiter, 1986. "Fiscal Prerequisites for a Viable Managed Exchange Rate Regime: A Non-technical Eclectic Introduction," NBER Working Papers 2041, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Robert E. Prasch, 2002. "What Is Wrong with Wage Subsidies?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 357-364, June.
    20. Thomas Palley, 2019. "Macroeconomics vs Modern Money Theory: Some unpleasant Keynesian arithmetic," Working Papers PKWP1910, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics

    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:wpa:wuwpma:0004031. 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: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.