Cigarette money

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Burdett, K; Trejos, A; Wright, R
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; University of Essex
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1006/jeth.2000.2731
• 发表日期: 2001
• 页码: 117-142
• 关键词: money; prices; search

摘要

We study how commodities emerge as money, the way cigarettes did in POW camps. We characterize how specialization, trading frictions, intrinsic properties of goods, and the amount of flat money determine whether a commodity serves as money and its value. In some equilibria, the exchange value of commodity money is pinned down by its consumption value: in others, it is not. The value of flat money may or may not be pinned down by commodity money. In some equilibria, the total (Fiat plus commodity) money supply is independent of the fiat money supply. We also discuss implications for Gresham's law, (C) 2001 Academic Press.