Can There Be a Theory of Money?

Salim Rashid
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
309 Wohlers Hall
1206 S. Sixth Street 
Champaign,IL: 61820
Email: 
s-rashid@uiuc.edu

JEL Classification: B0,E0,E5  

Keywords: Monetary Theory, Quantity Theory, Monetarism, Irving Fisher, Milton Friedman

 

 Abstract

The possibility of obtaining a 'theory' of money is questioned, where a theory is taken to mean an explanatory framework using a small number of observables. The root of the problem lies in the maximising nature of economic agents. Money is means to effect transactions and savings; what will be used as money depends upon such a miscellany of factors that no 'theory' can be expected to emerge. A critical examination of the Quantity Theory, both as a theory and as a testable proposition, supports this claim.

 

 

 

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Last updated March 15, 2002 by Linda Huff
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