TY - JOUR
T1 - Accounting meets economics: towards an ‘accounting view’ of money
AU - Cuccia, Andrea
AU - Valenza, Giuseppe
AU - Costa, Massimo
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - This study lays the foundations of the \Accounting View" of money. Using inter national accounting principles, the study argues that state and central bank monies are not debt, and that in fractional reserve regimes only a share of commercial bank money can be regarded as debt. The study determines how the seigniorage associated with the issuance of these monies should be accounted for in the financial statements of the issuing institutions, and examines what this implies for the correct understanding of money. The new view throws light into such issues as the true nature of central bank capital, commercial banks, and digital currencies. Drawing on it, new measurements of seigniorage are derived and applied to the case of the UK (for which recent estimates exist). The results reveal that seigniorage, in particular that extracted by commercial banks, is a quantitatively relevant phenomenon.
AB - This study lays the foundations of the \Accounting View" of money. Using inter national accounting principles, the study argues that state and central bank monies are not debt, and that in fractional reserve regimes only a share of commercial bank money can be regarded as debt. The study determines how the seigniorage associated with the issuance of these monies should be accounted for in the financial statements of the issuing institutions, and examines what this implies for the correct understanding of money. The new view throws light into such issues as the true nature of central bank capital, commercial banks, and digital currencies. Drawing on it, new measurements of seigniorage are derived and applied to the case of the UK (for which recent estimates exist). The results reveal that seigniorage, in particular that extracted by commercial banks, is a quantitatively relevant phenomenon.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10447/337653
UR - http://swps.unipa.it/index.php/swps/issue/view/3
M3 - Article
VL - 2018
SP - 1
EP - 22
JO - D/SEAS WORKING PAPERS
JF - D/SEAS WORKING PAPERS
SN - 2611-0172
ER -