Monetary Reform, Central Banks and Digital Currencies

Sheila Dow

No 1805, Department Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Victoria

Abstract: The modern debate about monetary reform has taken on a new twist with the development of distributed ledger payments technology employing private digital currencies. In order to consider the appropriate state response, we go back to first principles of money and finance and the case for financial regulation: to ensure provision of a safe money asset and a stable supply of credit within an inherently unstable financial system. We consider calls to privatise money or to restrict money issue to the state against the background of the increasing marketisation of the financial sector and money itself. Following an analysis of private digital currencies, we then consider proposals for state issue of digital currency. It is concluded that the focus of attention should instead be on updating of regulation, not only to encompass digital currencies, but also to address other innovations in the financial sector which generate credit and liquidity, in order to meet the needs of the real economy. JEL Classification: E3, E5, G1

Keywords: Digital Currencies; Central Banks; Financial Instability; Financial Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2018-06-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-mac, nep-mon, nep-pay and nep-pke
Note: ISSN 1914-2838
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Journal Article: Monetary Reform, Central Banks, and Digital Currencies (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vic:vicddp:1805

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