Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Empirical Studies on the Demand for Monetary Services in the UK

Elger, Thomas LU (2002) In Lund Economic Studies 105.
Abstract
Many economic models contain the single variable 'money'. Money does not exist in the form of a single physical unit and it is common to construct monetary aggregates using the method of simple summations. Monetary aggregation theory lends little or no support to the method of simply summing various monetary asset components up to arbitrary levels of aggregation. In monetary aggregation theory, monetary assets are treated as durable goods rendering a flow of services. Microeconomic aggregation theory provides rigorous conditions under which an aggregate over a group of monetary assets can be constructed and index number theory provides parameter- and estimation-free approximations of unknown aggregator functions. In the monetary... (More)
Many economic models contain the single variable 'money'. Money does not exist in the form of a single physical unit and it is common to construct monetary aggregates using the method of simple summations. Monetary aggregation theory lends little or no support to the method of simply summing various monetary asset components up to arbitrary levels of aggregation. In monetary aggregation theory, monetary assets are treated as durable goods rendering a flow of services. Microeconomic aggregation theory provides rigorous conditions under which an aggregate over a group of monetary assets can be constructed and index number theory provides parameter- and estimation-free approximations of unknown aggregator functions. In the monetary aggregation literature, it is common to construct monetary services indices (MSI's) using a discrete time approximation of the Divisia index.



In the first study included in this thesis, a 'capital certain' MSI is compared to a 'risky' MSI within a cointegration money demand framework. The capital certain MSI contains the same assets that are included in the official Bank of England MSI plus national savings investment accounts. The risky MSI contains the same assets that are included in the capital certain MSI plus three assets with substantial interest rate risk: bonds, shares and unit trusts. The inclusion of 'risky' assets into MSI's is motivated by both financial innovations that have increased the liquidity of such assets and recent developments in monetary aggregation theory that allow for interest rate risk in combination with risk aversion. The cointegration analysis reveals no apparent gain from the inclusion of risky assets in terms of consistency of the results with economic theory nor stability. Some problems are detected in the construction of the risky MSI. In the second study included in this thesis, tests for weak separability are performed. Weak separability is the fundamental existence condition for an aggregate over any group of goods. All capital certain assets are found to be weakly separable from non-durables, services and leisure over the larger part of the 90's. Two extensions aimed at relaxing the deterministic nature of the weak separability tests turn out difficult to interpret. In the final study included in this thesis, the demand for monetary assets is studied within a consumer demand framework. Since the data may be non-stationary, a linearised system is used. This system is estimated in first differences. The sample is based on the results from the weak separability study. The estimated system conforms to homogeneity- and symmetry restrictions. Elasticity estimates are consistent with economic priors. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • Prof Barnett, William A., the University of Kansas
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ekonomisk politik, ekonomiska system, ekonomisk teori, economic policy, economic systems, Nationalekonomi, ekonometri, econometrics, economic theory, Divisia, Economics, Monetary Aggregation
in
Lund Economic Studies
volume
105
pages
154 pages
publisher
Department of Economics, Lund University
defense location
EC3:210
defense date
2002-09-26 14:00:00
ISSN
0460-0029
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Chapter 2) The UK Personal Sector Demand for Risky MoneyChapter 3) Is UK Risky Money Wekly SeparableChapter 4) The Demand for Monetary Assets in the UK - A Locally Flexible Demand system Analysis
id
b2429c17-4dd0-4175-8136-a225ea9b9306 (old id 464972)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:30:27
date last changed
2019-05-21 16:29:36
@phdthesis{b2429c17-4dd0-4175-8136-a225ea9b9306,
  abstract     = {{Many economic models contain the single variable 'money'. Money does not exist in the form of a single physical unit and it is common to construct monetary aggregates using the method of simple summations. Monetary aggregation theory lends little or no support to the method of simply summing various monetary asset components up to arbitrary levels of aggregation. In monetary aggregation theory, monetary assets are treated as durable goods rendering a flow of services. Microeconomic aggregation theory provides rigorous conditions under which an aggregate over a group of monetary assets can be constructed and index number theory provides parameter- and estimation-free approximations of unknown aggregator functions. In the monetary aggregation literature, it is common to construct monetary services indices (MSI's) using a discrete time approximation of the Divisia index.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In the first study included in this thesis, a 'capital certain' MSI is compared to a 'risky' MSI within a cointegration money demand framework. The capital certain MSI contains the same assets that are included in the official Bank of England MSI plus national savings investment accounts. The risky MSI contains the same assets that are included in the capital certain MSI plus three assets with substantial interest rate risk: bonds, shares and unit trusts. The inclusion of 'risky' assets into MSI's is motivated by both financial innovations that have increased the liquidity of such assets and recent developments in monetary aggregation theory that allow for interest rate risk in combination with risk aversion. The cointegration analysis reveals no apparent gain from the inclusion of risky assets in terms of consistency of the results with economic theory nor stability. Some problems are detected in the construction of the risky MSI. In the second study included in this thesis, tests for weak separability are performed. Weak separability is the fundamental existence condition for an aggregate over any group of goods. All capital certain assets are found to be weakly separable from non-durables, services and leisure over the larger part of the 90's. Two extensions aimed at relaxing the deterministic nature of the weak separability tests turn out difficult to interpret. In the final study included in this thesis, the demand for monetary assets is studied within a consumer demand framework. Since the data may be non-stationary, a linearised system is used. This system is estimated in first differences. The sample is based on the results from the weak separability study. The estimated system conforms to homogeneity- and symmetry restrictions. Elasticity estimates are consistent with economic priors.}},
  author       = {{Elger, Thomas}},
  issn         = {{0460-0029}},
  keywords     = {{ekonomisk politik; ekonomiska system; ekonomisk teori; economic policy; economic systems; Nationalekonomi; ekonometri; econometrics; economic theory; Divisia; Economics; Monetary Aggregation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund Economic Studies}},
  title        = {{Empirical Studies on the Demand for Monetary Services in the UK}},
  volume       = {{105}},
  year         = {{2002}},
}