Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629-1631

Donato Masciandaro (), Charles Goodhart and Stefano Ugolini

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

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: helicopter money; monetary policy; pandemic; Venice 1629-31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F3 G3 N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2022-01-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-pke
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Published in Financial History Review, 11, January, 2022, 28(3), pp. 300 - 318. ISSN: 0968-5650

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/113845/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
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)
Working Paper: Pandemic Recession and Helicopter Money: Venice, 1629–1631 (2021)
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