Our study examines whether there is a systematic relationship between the monetary standard under which a country operates and the rate of inflation it experiences. It also explores whether there are other properties of inflation, money, and output that differ between economies operating under a...

This paper establishes the stylized fact that medieval debasements were accompanied by unusually large minting volumes and revenues. This fact is a puzzle under the commonly held view that metallic coins are commodity money and exchange by weight. An existing explanation is that debased coins...

"In this paper I describe a "monetary" system in which backing is provided for the government's liabilities by way of contingent resort to taxes. The system has some of the features of a commodity money system with a large seignorage spread between bid and ask prices. It is studied within the...

Christopher Sims, Princeton economist, on inflation targets, vector autoregression and the importance of monetary policy.