Why are complementary currency systems difficult to grasp within conventional economics?

Marie Fare () and Pepita Ould Ahmed ()
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Marie Fare: TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: "Complementary currency system (CCS) complements the official currency, with a view to accounting for and regulating exchanges of goods and services in a local space. Despite the topicality and the number of these complementary currencies, the large majority of economists seem to pay marginal attention to them. This article proposes some reasons to explain it. Fundamentally, conventional economics is based on a methodological approach and on theoretical and normative conceptions of money – its essence, status, size, and governance – that prevent it from understanding these monetary schemes. First, the heterogeneity of CCS and their new emergence confront economics to a methodological problem of measure of their impacts. Next, we show that, because of their limited purchasing power in time and in space, economics can't justify their use in market economy. Last, we will see that the monetary rules of issuing and regulating CSS prevent main contemporary monetary approaches to recognize and legitimate them."

Keywords: convertibility; complementary currency; money; impact studies; sovereignty; purchasing power; études d'impact; souveraineté; pouvoir d'achat; convertibilité; monnaie complémentaire; monnaie (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Interventions Economiques : Papers in Political Economy, 2018, La nature sociale de la monnaie, 59, ⟨10.4000/interventionseconomiques.3960⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01678295

DOI: 10.4000/interventionseconomiques.3960

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