How do Bitcoin prices evolve? What are the consequences for monetary policy? We answer these questions in a novel, yet simple endowment economy. There are two types of money, both useful for transactions: Bitcoins and Dollars. A central bank keeps the real value of Dollars constant, while...

The prospect of central banks issuing digital currency (CBDC) immediately raises the question of how this new form of money should co-exist and interact with existing forms of money. This paper evaluates three different scenarios for the implementation of CBDC in terms of their monetary policy...

The properties of money commonly referenced in the economics literature were originally identified by Jevons (1876) and Menger (1892) in the late 1800s and were intended to describe physical currencies, such as commodity money, metallic coins, and paper bills. In the digital era, many...

Written Testimony of Lev Menand for the hearing entitled "Building a Stronger Financial System: Opportunities for a Central Bank Digital Currency" before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Subcommittee on Economic Policy

We build models with an interest-bearing central bank digital currency (CBDC) to investigate the impacts of issuing CBDC on banking and the macroeconomy. When CBDC is the only asset, a higher interest rate on CBDC does not necessarily lead to financial disintermediation. It could promote bank...

This paper is a critical engagement with the four design principles for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) recently proposed by Kumhof and Noone (KN). It is argued that the implicit notion of parity underlying KN's analysis is too narrow as it is only focused on the exchange rate between CBDC...