Money and Growth: An Alternative Approach

This paper takes an alternative approach to the topic of money and growth by developing a model in which the effects of sustained capital accumulation on an evolving system of payments, in addition to the conventional effects of sustained inflation on growth, are examined. While the effects of inflation on growth are small, the effects of growth on the monetary system are substantial. The results are consistent with ideas about money and growth contained in work that predates that of Tobin and Sidrauski, as well as with evidence that money and asset demands vary systematically within economies as they develop.