Search Results
Journal Article
The search-theoretic approach to monetary economics: a primer
The authors present simple versions of models used in the search-theoretic approach to monetary economics. They discuss results on the existence of monetary equilibria, the potential for multiple equilibria, and welfare. Using bilateral bargaining theory, they consider models where prices are fixed as well as those where prices are determined endogenously. After describing the frictions necessary to construct a model where money has an essential role, they conclude by reviewing many extensions and applications in the related literature
Discussion Paper
A conference on liquidity in frictional markets
This Policy Discussion Paper summarizes the papers that were presented at the Liquidity in Frictional Markets conference in November 2008. The papers, which looked at markets for assets as diverse as houses, bank loans, and electronic funds transfer, all explored that amorphous concept called liquidity and how its presenceor absenceaffects the economy.
Journal Article
The labor market in real business cycle theory
The standard real business cycle model fails to adequately account for two facts found in the U.S. data: the fact that hours worked fluctuate considerably more than productivity and the fact that the correlation between hours worked and productivity is close to zero. In this paper, in a unified framework, the authors describe and analyze four extensions of the standard model, by introducing nonseparable leisure, indivisible labor, government spending, and household production.
Journal Article
Acceptability, means of payment, and media of exchange
This essay explains the use of fiat money, or why intrinsically useless objects are accepted as payment in transactions. People accept a particular object as a means of payment because others do: social conventions matter more than the intrinsic characteristics of the object itself. Not everything can become a fiat money, though. If an object is especially costly to hold, for example, it will not be accepted as a means of payment. This explanation of fiat money is illustrated in a simple theoretical economic model. ; This essay was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money ...
Working Paper
Intermediation in Markets for Goods and Markets for Assets
We analyze agents' decisions to act as producers or intermediaries using equilibrium search theory. Extending previous analyses in various ways, we ask when intermediation emerges and study its efficiency. In one version of the framework, meant to resemble retail, middlemen hold goods, which entails (storage) costs; that model always displays uniqueness and simple transition dynamics. In another version, middlemen hold assets, which entails negative costs, that is, positive returns; that model can have multiple equilibria and complicated belief-based dynamics. These results are consistent ...
Working Paper
Search-Based Models of Money and Finance: An Integrated Approach
Many applications of search theory in monetary economics use the Shi-Trejos-Wright model, hereafter STW, while applications in finance use Duffie-Grleanu-Pederson, hereafter DGP. These approaches have much in common, and both claim to be about liquidity, but the models also differ in a fundamental way: in STW agents use assets as payment instruments when trading goods; in DGP there are no gains from exchanging goods, but agents trade because they value assets differently with goods serving as payment instruments. We develop a framework nesting the two. This clarifies the connection between ...
Working Paper
Generalized search-theoretic models of monetary exchange
This paper extends the literature on search-theoretic models of money in several ways. It provides results for general bargaining parameters, whereas previous papers consider only special cases. It also presents one version of the model in which agents holding money cannot produce and another in which they can. The former has been used in essentially all the previous literature, although the latter seems more natural for some purposes and avoids several undesirable implications. Since very little is known about this version, the authors analyze it in detail.
Discussion Paper
Recent developments in monetary economics: a summary of the 2004 Workshop on Money, Banking, and Payments
We provide a summary and an overview of the papers presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Clevelands 2004 Workshop on Money, Banking, and Payments, held during the weeks of August 3-7 and August 23-27, 2004.
Working Paper
A model of money and credit, with application to the credit card debt puzzle
Many individuals simultaneously have significant credit card debt and money in the bank. The credit card debt puzzle is: given high interest rates on credit cards and low rates on bank accounts, why not pay down debt? While some economists go to elaborate lengths to explain this, we argue it is a special case of the rate-of-return-dominance puzzle from monetary economics. We extend standard monetary theory to incorporate consumer debt, which is interesting in its own right since developing models where money and credit coexist is a long-standing challenge. Our model is quite tractable?e.g., ...
Discussion Paper
Innovation and Growth with Frictions
The generation and implementation of new ideas are major factors in economic performance and growth. If some people are better at research and others at development, there emerges a role for an ?idea market,? where technology transfers reallocate knowledge to those best able to develop and apply it. Financial institutions can facilitate this reallocation by providing credit for these transfers. {{p}} However, the idea market is rife with frictions. These include so-called search-and-bargaining problems. Another obstacle is credit friction: If a debtor reneges, it is not always easy to ...