Pandemic Recession and Helicopter Money: Venice, 1629–1631

Charles Goodhart, Donato Masciandaro () and Stefano Ugolini

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Abstract: We analyse the money-financed fiscal stimulus implemented in Venice during the famine and plague of 1629–31, which was equivalent to a ‘net-worth helicopter money' strategy – a monetary expansion generating losses to the issuer. We argue that the strategy aimed at reconciling the need to subsidize inhabitants suffering from containment policies with the desire to prevent an increase in long-term government debt, but it generated much monetary instability and had to be quickly reversed. This episode highlights the redistributive implications of the design of macroeconomic policies and the role of political economy factors in determining such designs.

Keywords: Monetary policy; Helicopter money; Pandemic; Venice 1629-1631 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-his, nep-mac and nep-mon
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://univ-tlse2.hal.science/hal-03522231v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Financial History Review, 2021, 28 (3), pp.300-318. ⟨10.1017/S0968565021000214⟩

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Related works:
Working Paper: Pandemic Recession and Helicopter Money: Venice, 1629--1631 (2022)
Working Paper: Pandemic Recession And Helicopter Money: Venice, 1629-1631 (2022)
Working Paper: Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629-1631 (2022)
Journal Article: Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629–1631 (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03522231

DOI: 10.1017/S0968565021000214

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