All Rights Reserved
AccessEcon LLC 2006, 2008.
Powered by MinhViet JSC

 
Jesse Aaron Zinn
 
''An alternative framework for a textbook analysis of the money multiplier''
( 2018, Vol. 38 No.4 )
 
 
In textbooks on the theory of money it is standard practice to hold both reserves and deposits fixed to study the relationship between the quantity of currency in the economy and the money multiplier. But doing so leads to a result that is contrary to the notion that if the public withdraws from their deposits in order to increase currency holdings then bank lending will decrease, causing a fall in both the money supply and the money multiplier. Specifically, when reserves are greater than deposits and both are fixed the money multiplier has a positive relationship with both currency holdings and the currency-deposit ratio. I show that these results are artifacts of implicitly assuming that the monetary authority behaves so as to keep deposits and reserves constant in response to a change in currency held by the public. Dropping these assumptions and abstracting from any response from the central bank results in an unconditionally non-positive relationship between currency holdings and the money multiplier.
 
 
Keywords: Money Supply, Monetary Base, Money Multiplier, Deposits, Bank Reserves
JEL: E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General
A2 - Economics Education and Teaching of Economics: General
 
Manuscript Received : May 27 2018 Manuscript Accepted : Nov 07 2018

  This abstract has been downloaded 1067 times                The Full PDF of this paper has been downloaded 166503 times