 Monetary Economics: A Review EssayNo 3686, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc Abstract: In this essay I define money to be whatever objects serve as generally acceptable media of exchange and I define monetary economics to be the study of the causes and economic consequences of the monetization of exchange -- that is, of the use of media of exchange. These definitions lead me to specify the distinctive objectives of monetary economics to be to understand (1) the monetization of exchange and its relation to the technologies of production and of exchange, (2) the form that money takes and, especially, the viability of fiat money, (3) the determination and significance of the real value of units of money, and (4) the relation between the nominal quantity of money and aggregate economic activity. The essay tries to acquaint the reader with the contents of the recently published "Handbook of Monetary Economic" as they relate to these objectives of monetary economics and offer some critical thoughts on selected unsettled issues in monetary economics that my reading of the "Handbook" suggested. Date: 1991-04 Published as Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 323-345, (October 1991). Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3686 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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