Modeling Monetary Economies

by Bruce Champ, Scott Freeman, Joseph Haslag

Too often monetary economics has been taught as a collection of facts about institutions for students to memorize. By teaching from first principles instead, this advanced undergraduate textbook builds on a simple, clear monetary model and applies this framework consistently to a wide variety of monetary questions. Starting with the case in which trade is mutually beneficial, the book demonstrates that money makes people better off, and that government money competes against other means of payments, including other types of government money. After developing each of these topics, the book tackles the issue of money competing against other stores of value, examining issues associated with trade, finance, and modern banking. The book then moves from simple economies to modern economies, addressing the role banks play in making more trades possible, concluding with the information problems plaguing modern banking, which result in financial crises.

Genres: Economics, Textbooks

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Odile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dry read but very clear explanation of macroeconomics concepts

[Yasoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a source for an Advanced Macroeconomics lecture.
First half, clearly explains the OLG model an different scenarios resulting to inflation & deflation, including population, monetary base, etc.

[João Ritto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reasonable treatment of monetary economics in a textbook way that could be used to accompany a course. Each chapter develops an idea about monetary economics and presents a model that can illustrate the point. The core model, however, is an overlapping generations model which is no longer the state-of-the-art nowadays. In fact, there is now a general perception that it is not overlapping generations that explain the need for money, with models of double-coincidence-of-wants taking the lead.

Generally, I would say this is an interesting book for an undergraduate level, but if you want to understand more about monetary economics, you will have to proceed to other kinds of models. Specifically, I would advise you to read about the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level which for me is really the most coherent theory around.