In this paper, an empirically stable money demand model for M3 in the euro area is constructed. Starting with a multivariate system, three cointegrating relationships with economic content are found: (i) the spread between the long- and the short-term nominal interest rates, (ii) the long-term...

Tax collection costs have been advocated in the literature as a reason to deviate from the Friedman rule, in standard general equilibrium monetary models with flexible prices. This paper shows that there are conditions under which the Friedman rule is optimal despite the presence of collection...

In order to assess the importance of monetary and financial developments for key macroeconomic variables in the euro area a money demand system for M3 is estimated adopting a structural cointegrating VAR approach. While maintaining a good statistical representation of the data, long-run...

A remarkable development seen in recent years is the pronounced decline in euro area M1 velocity vis--vis a moderate decline in short-term interest rates, which represent the most natural opportunity cost for M1, suggesting an increase in the interest rate elasticity of M1 demand. In fact,...

This paper sets out to build a synthetic quarterly Divisia monetary aggregate for the euro area using area wide data over the sample period from 1980 to 2000. Then, the analysis proceeds in two separate steps. First, the demand for this Divisia monetary aggregate is evaluated using econometric...

In this paper we determine the optimal combination of taxes on money, consumption and income in transaction technology models. We show that the optimal policy does not tax money, regardless of whether the government can use the income tax, the consumption tax, or the two taxes jointly. These...

After the switch to a floating exchange rate in 1973, the Swiss National Bank at first adopted annual monetary targets and in the 1990s shifted to a medium-term targeting strategy. In this paper I review the SNB's internal policy analysis, an aspect of Swiss monetary targeting that has received...

The role of money in society has been a controversial topic in economic theory over many years. Particular attention has been devoted to the analysis whether there should be competition in the supply of money, or whether this is best left to a governmental agency. This paper reviews the...