The Chicago Plan Revisited /

At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits. Irving Fish...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Kumhof, Michael
Autres auteurs: Benes, Jaromir
Format: Revue
Langue:English
Publié: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2012.
Collection:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2012/202
Accès en ligne:Full text available on IMF
Description
Résumé:At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits. Irving Fisher (1936) claimed the following advantages for this plan: (1) Much better control of a major source of business cycle fluctuations, sudden increases and contractions of bank credit and of the supply of bank-created money. (2) Complete elimination of bank runs. (3) Dramatic reduction of the (net) public debt. (4) Dramatic reduction of private debt, as money creation no longer requires simultaneous debt creation. We study these claims by embedding a comprehensive and carefully calibrated model of the banking system in a DSGE model of the U.S. economy. We find support for all four of Fisher's claims. Furthermore, output gains approach 10 percent, and steady state inflation can drop to zero without posing problems for the conduct of monetary policy.
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Description matérielle:1 online resource (71 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Accès:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students