The Endogenous Supply of Money. Some Theoretical Implications

This thesis concentrates on the topic of the endogenous supply of money. It describes the basic shapes of the endogenous money theory and analyzes the causes of usual misunderstandings about the nature and behavior of money. We outline the important difference between asset-based and liability-based understanding of money and conclude that although both principles are theoretically applicable, the liability-based approach matches the major volume of real economic transactions. The liability-approach, which we conclude to be more appropriate way of understanding money, leads back to the topic of money endogeneity. We go over to the development of the ideas of endogenous supply of money as they appear over the second half of the 20th century and depict the major contributions in this area. We reference also the Czech academic research and comment the most relevant works. In the second part, the thesis concentrates on two theoretical areas analyzing the impacts of the money endogeneity. We point out at fundamental controversies in the concept of deposit multiplication concluding it to be an unrealistic process in a credit based economy. We conclude that the stock of money is not a directly controllable aggregate, especially not by means of the money base. The other area is the theory of capital and the foundation of the return on capital. We recall the Keynesian topic of the euthanasia of the rentier, develop the microeconomical foundation of the accumulation of capital and conclude that the zeroizing of the interest rate is feasible in a long-run. In the third part we go over to economic history and schools of economic thinking confronting them with the theory of endogenous supply of money. We concentrate on the notorious Smithian criticism of the mercantile doctrine finding the criticism not fully sustainable if we consider the varying nature of money over the medieval period. We analyze the available statistical data of medieval England concluding that the stock of monetary metals had a direct influence on the economic activity of England in the pre-Smithian era thus referencing to a strongly exogenous character of money, while there is no such relation afterwards, when money was becoming more endogenous. We put a next emphasis on the Austrian theory of money, which in many aspects is at variance with the endogenous money theory. We analyze both views on the money circulation and add new comments to the discussion on the foundation of the return on capital. We draw attention to the Mises' idea of Zirkulationskredit (circulation credit) concluding that this concept comes in fact to a common understanding of the money behavior along with the endogenous money approach. We conclude with finding that the theory of endogenous supply of money is a fundamental economical concept with impacts on almost all other branches of economics. This thesis thus contributes to a larger adoption of the endogenous money theory in the economical research on the theoretical as well as on the practical level. Concerning the practical area, the primary interest in adoption of this theory in contemporary macroeconomics is indeed concentrated on the suggestion for economic policy after the 2008 subprime crisis and we extend this thesis also by concluding notes in this issue.