Low key rates hurt the profits of deposit-taking institutions in a differentiated Bertrand game if there is neither a tax on banknotes, nor a limit on its quantity, nor a reduction of its quality. By making the electronic dollar the unit of account and taxing paper currency, the central bank can...

This paper analyses the consequences for monetary policy in the presence of currencies issued by firms. Such currencies generate seignorage revenues and information on consumers. In a benchmark model of imperfectly competing firms, information breaks the usual portfolio indeterminacy as in...

We show that the vertical delegation of decision-making authority to agent firms can act as a credible strategic commitment even when contracts are unobservable (or renegotiable) if and only if multilateral delegation is combined with decentralized ownership of the agent firms. In this case, the...