Production, Hidden Action, and the Payment System

In this paper, we study a model economy that can account for the distribution of payments within a day. In our model, debtors choose when to arrive at the settlement location. Concomitant with choosing their arrival, debtors are making a production decision. We assume there is a cost to arriving early; that is, late-arrival is associated with a technology that dominates early arrival/production. Second, we treat the debtor's choice as hidden from creditors. We derive conditions under which the planner allocates production to each type of agents. In the decentralized setting, there is a nonarbitrage condition that is consistent with a positive intraday rate. The central bank may be able to implement the planner's allocation with a proper intraday interest rate. In some cases, the optimal intraday rate is positive.