Theoretical Economics Letters, 2018, 8, 476-484
http://www.scirp.org/journal/tel
ISSN Online: 2162-2086
ISSN Print: 2162-2078
10.4236/tel.2018.83033 Feb. 14, 2018 476 Theoretical Economics Letters
Currency Flow in an Economy:
India’s Demonetarization Event
Frederick Betz, Timothy R. Anderson, Aurobindh Kalathil Puthanpura
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA
In a previous paper, we analyzed an economic event in 2016-
demonetarization of India,
to test the empirical validity of the Chartalist
school of monetary theory [1]
. The Chartalist school had distinguished three
kinds of money: Fiat, Commodity, and Managed Money. The demonetariz
tion event provided empirical evidence for this currency distinction being si
nificant and empirically valid, in the context of the nation of India. That su
den withdrawal of Fiat money immediately decreased the amount of Co
modity money, creating an economic crisis in local Indian commerce. M
a-
naged Money (as bank accounts) was unable to fill the temporary gap in the
supply of money,
because a large portion of the Indian population did not
have bank accounts. Also the government had not supplied a sufficient nu
m-
ber of new Fiat money (new 500 and 2000 rupee notes) to quickly replace the
withdrawn 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Our analysis showed that the policy
thinking behind the demonetarization event lack
ed a proper understanding of
valid monetary theory. In this paper, we continue the analysis of the demon
e-
tarization event by constructing a model of monetary flow in India. This
model builds upon the Chartalist theory of money and may help fiscal policy
makers to make sound decisions about currency and credit in a nation.
Keywords
Economics, Monetary Theory, Fiscal Policy
1. Introduction
The model of the flow of currency within an economy should trace the flow be-
tween the public and private sectors, because fiat money is created in the public
sector. As L Randall Wray wrote: “It is often useful to distinguish among differ-
ent types of sectors in the e conomy. The most basic distinction is between the
Betz, F.,
Puthanpura, A.K. (2018)
Currency
Flow in an Economy: India’s Demonetar
i-
.
Theoretical Economics Le
,
, 476-484.
https://doi.org/10.4236/tel.2018.83033
December 28, 2017
February 11, 2018
February 14, 2018
8 by authors and
Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Attribution International
4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/