In many online systems, individuals provide services for each other; the recipient of the service obtains a benefit but the provider of the service incurs a cost. If benefit exceeds cost, provision of the service increases social welfare and should therefore be encouraged—but the individuals providing the service gain no (immediate) benefit from providing the service and hence have an incentive...

To the knowledge of the author, this is the first time it has been shown that interest rates that are extremely high by modern standards are necessary within a zero-sum monetary system. Extreme interest rates persisted for long periods of time in many places. Prior to the invention of banking, most money was hard-money in the form of some type of coin. Here a model is presented that examines th...

In reaction to the monetary turmoil created by the financial crisis of September 2008, both legislative and constitutional reforms have been proposed in different Countries to introduce Commodity Money alongside existing National Fiat Currency. A thorough evaluation of the Economic consequences of these new proposals is warranted. This paper surveys some of the existing knowledge in Monetary an...

We construct stationary Markov equilibria for an economy with fiat money, one nondurable commodity, countably-many time periods, and a continuum of agents. The total production of commodity remains constant, but individual agents’ endowments fluctuate in a random fashion from period to period. In order to hedge against these random fluctuations, agents find it useful to hold fiat money which th...

We examine a search money model in which there is a symmetric coincidence of wants in all barter matches. However, when bargaining outcomes are asymmetric across matches, the barter economy is inefficient. Then a robust monetary equilibrium exists provided that money holders enjoy adequate bargaining terms. Fiat money may be welfare improving. In contrast to the literature, it is the asymmetry ...