Many economic models use a continuum of negligible agents to avoid considering one person's effect on aggregate characteristics of the economy. Along with a continuum of agents, these models often incorporate a sequence of independent shocks and random matchings. Despite frequent use of such...

Why do people coordinate on the use of valueless pieces of paper as generally accepted money? A possible answer is that these objects have intrinsic properties that make them better candidates to be used as media of exchange. Another answer stresses the fact that unconvertible fiat money will...

This paper examines the production aspect of money to bridge between the search-theoretic models and the canonical Walrasian growth models. In this paper, we argue that money can generate real effects via technology choice (high vs. low), we model explicitly the pattern of exchanges to explore...

We consider a general equilibrium model where monetary policy has redistributive effects. Agents have stochastic preferences and face random buying and selling opportunities. We show that the Friedman rule is just the second best policy. However, the Friedman rule is Pareto optimal. It requires...

This paper analyzes the stability of monetary regimes in an economy where fiat money is endogenously created by the government, information about its value is imperfect, and learning is decentralized. We show that monetary stability depends crucially on the speed of information transmission in...

Models of the exchange process based on search theory can be used to analyze the features of objects that make them more or less likely to emerge as ``money'' in equilibrium. These models illustrate the trade--off between endogenous acceptability (an equilibrium property) and intrinsic...

This paper generalizes the original random matching model of money by Kiyotaki and Wright (1989) (KW) in two aspects: first, the economy is characterized by an arbitrary distribution of agents who specialize in producing a particular consumption good; and second, these agents have preferences...

It is generally agreed that within long-term relationships agents learn the characteristics of their market partners better than through spot transactions. In contrast, little is known on how relationship-based and transaction-based markets compare when agents learn about the aggregate economy...

Numerous economic models employ a continuum of negligible agents with a sequence of idiosyncratic shocks and random matchings. Several attempts have been made to build a rigorous mathematical justification for such models, but these attempts have left many questions unanswered. In this paper, we...

We use a modified version of the Lagos-Wright model to introduce an essential role for banks. Due to preference shocks, agents have excess demand for or supply of money balances. Banks arise to reallocate excess cash by taking deposits from sellers and making loans to buyers. We consider two...