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Grandmont Younes 1973
Grandmont Younes 1973
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Jean-Michel Grandmont
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On
the
of
Efficiency
Equilibrium
Monetary
1,2
A-40/2
149
150
equal intervals of time. Consumption goods available in each period are perishable and
cannot be stored from one period to another. As in Patinkin's world, each trader receives
at the beginning of each market a real income in kind which is represented by a bundle of
consumption goods (this real income can be interpreted as the trader's production). We
take it as exogenously given and constant over time. On the other hand (fiat) money has
no direct utility but is the only store of value. In addition, the role of money as an exchange
intermediary is introduced (in a very crude way) by assuming that money is the necessary
counterpart of any purchase or sale of a consumption good and by imposing a priori
restrictions on transactions. These constraints on transactions express the following
assumptions. During each marketing period, sellers (resp. buyers) must look for buyers
(resp. sellers) in order to make transactions. As all transactions cannot be made simultaneously, a trader will in general be unable to use all the proceeds of his current sales in order
to pay for his current purchases. In this formulation, money is a capital good which is
used as an input in the exchange process. Finally, we shall assume that every trader seeks
to maximize an intertemporal utility function of the " Ramsey type ":
h =oo
h
St= 0
u
+ h)),
hu(q(t
where q(t + h) denotes consumption at time t + h and 5 is a parameter satisfying 0 < 5 < 1.
The analysis will concentrate on steady-state market equilibria of this economy, in which
all " real " magnitudes are constant over time.2
All the definitions and assumptions we need in this paper are formally stated in Section
1. We consider in Section 2 the laissez-faire case (there are no tax payments nor interest
payments, so that the total money stock is constant over time). We shall prove rigorously
that a stationary market equilibrium is in general Pareto inefficient when traders discount
the future. In the process, we shall (hopefully) make more precise the reasoning which
we outlined at the beginning of this introduction. As expected, the " dual variables " of
the traders' transaction constraints play the role of the traders' " marginal utility of real
balances ". In Section 3, we turn to the case where the government induces a steady
decrease of the money stock by imposing lump sum taxes (to be paid in money), the distribution of these taxes among traders being fixed once and for all, as in M. Friedman [3, ch. 1].
We shall check that, when traders have the same rate of time preference, it is possible to
choose the rate of decrease of the money stock so that any resulting steady market equilibrium is Pareto efficient. We shall however prove that the implementation of such a policy
introduces a double indeterminacy of steady-state market equilibria. As a matter of fact,
in the case of such a policy, for every Pareto optimal allocation of consumption goods,
one can find an infinity of steady-state market equilibria which achieve this allocation.
Moreover, if one considers the set of steady-state market equilibria associated with a given
Pareto allocation of consumption goods, one finds that " real " balances are indeterminate
and can be arbitrarilylarge. This shows that it is not legitimate to say that such a monetary
policy sets traders' stationary real balances at their " optimum level ". In addition, we
shall prove that, if the rate of decrease of the total money stock is too large (compared
to the traders' rate of time preference), steady-state market equilibria no longer exist. One
should of course interpret these results with care, for some of them may well depend
on the particular form given to traders' utility functions.3 The results do however show
that the advocates of such a monetary policy should also be rather more careful when
1 This is obviously a very strong assumption, which is made in order to simplify the analysis. It
would be desirable to cover the case where the traders' rates of time preference depend on their consumption
stream. The study of such a case, which appears difficult at first sight, was outside the scope of this paper.
2 In this we follow the majority of the writers in the field. It is clearly a strong restriction. A complete
study of the efficiency of a monetary economy should consider the ex post path of the economy starting from
arbitrary initial conditions. A major source of inefficiency in that case would be that at any point of time
traders have imperfect information about the future. Such a study was outside the scope of this paper.
3 These results may, in particular, depend on the assumption that the traders' rate of time preference
is independent of their consumption. See footnote 1 above.
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
151
stating their conclusions. Finally, we analyse in Section 4 the case where the government
imposes lump sum taxes on traders as in Section 3, but also pays a constant nominal
interest rate on cash balances. We show that the payment of a nominal rate of interest on
money holdings cannot by itself affect the " real " magnitudes describing the steady-state
market equilibria. What can affect the stationary allocation of consumption goods is the
gap between the nominal interest rate and the rate of inflation (i.e., the " real " rate of
interest on money) which is created by the taxation policy. This is almost a triviality.
However, as this fact is sometimes forgotten by writers in the subject, we felt it was worthwhile to emphasise it by stating it in a separate section.
The remainder of this paper is devoted to a precise proof of these statements (Sections
1 to 4). In addition, we prove in a mathematical appendix (Section 5) a result which is
used throughout the paper. As our main concern is the formal treatment of the model,
heuristic comments will be reduced to a minimum.
The stock of money carried over from the previous period by the ith trader is denoted
mi(t -1) ? 0. At the beginning of period t, our trader may receive from the government
a nominal rate of interest r > -1. In addition, he may have to pay a tax which, by convention, we represent by a nonpositivereal number ai(t). The stock of cash balances which is
available to the trader when the tth market opens is therefore (1 + r)mi(t- 1) + ai(t).
Let p(t) represent the monetary prices of the N consumption goods which prevail at
time t. As we only consider positive prices, the vector p(t) belongs to the set
P = {peRNIp>?O}.
Given this price system, the ith trader must choose an action xi(t) = (qi(y), mi(t)) E R+
which describes his consumption qi(t) E RN in the current period and the money balances
mi(t) > 0 he wishes to carry over until the next period. By assumption, his choice will
have to satisfy the following requirements. First,2
p(t) *qi(t) + mi(t) = p(t) *wi + (1 + r)mi(t- 1) + ai(t)
represents his budget constraint. Second, we impose a transactionsconstraint on the trades
which are feasible; this constraint reflects the difficulty for the sellers and buyers to get
together during the marketing period. The trader's action must satisfy:
Gj(p(t), qi(t)) _ (1 + r)mi(t- 1) + ai(t).
Then Gj(p(t), qi(t)) can be interpreted as the minimum amount of cash which is needed in
order to achieve the consumption qi(t) when the price system p(t) prevails. In order to
simplify the analysis, we shall specify:
Gj(p(t), qi(t)) =p(t) *(qi(t) - oi)+ -kp(t) *(qi(t) - oi)1 Thefollowingnotationis used. For anyx andy in RN,x > y meansx,, > ynfor all n, whilex>y
meansx ? y andx # y. Finallyx > > y meansXn> Ynfor all n.
2 Forp andq in RN,p q denotesthe innerproductE pnqn.
n
152
where (qi(t)-o j)+ and (qi(t)-owi)- denote respectively the trader's net purchases and net
sales,' and k is a parameter satisfying 0 < k < 1 (all the results hold with obvious notational changes, if we specify Gi(p, q) = p (q -) -))
kinpn(q-w)), ). This constraint means
n
that the trader will be unable to use a fraction (1 - k) of his current sales p(t) (qi(t) - 1))
in order to finance his purchases during the same marketing period. In what follows,
we shall take these transactions constraints as a characteristic datum of the economy.
It will be convenient to assume:
(b) k>o.
By definition, a short run market equilibrium at time t, is reached if the price system
p(t) equates supply and demand for all consumption goods and for nominal cash balances.
The ith trader's choice at time t in response to p(t) will clearly depend on his intertemporal preferences and on his anticipations of the future.
As the trader's planning horizon is infinite, his intertemporal preferences at time t
will be defined on the set Yi of all possible consumption streams y, i.e., all countable arrays
(qi(t+h)), h ? 0, of elements of RN. We shall assume for all i:
(c) The i-th trader's intertemporalpreferences on Yi at time t can be representedby a
utility function of theform:
oo
h=
Uj(y)
Yhui(q(t+ h))
E
h=
where the real valuedfunction ui is continuous, bounded,strictly concave and strictly monotone,2 and bi is a parametersatisfying O< 3,< 1. The characteristicsui and bi are independent
of time t.
By definition, the ith trader's rate of time preference pi is implicitly given by
bi=
1/( +pi).
In order to make a choice at time t, the ith trader must forecast the equilibrium price
systems p(t+h), h > 1, in subsequent periods.3 We assume point expectations.4 We also
assume that a trader's forecast is described by a function i of current and past prices
which is independent of time t. Then i(p(t), p(t-1), p(t-2), ...) representsthe ith trader's
forecast of future price systems when current and past price systems are p(t), p(t - 1), ....
Note that if (p(t), p(t - 1), ...) represents a countable array of price systems of P. We shall
assume, for all i:
(d) For any p in P and any a>O0,
oif(p,a IP, a2p,
...)
( 2p,c2p, ocp,
...).
This assumption means that if relative prices and the rate of inflation were constant
in the past, then traders expect these quantities to remain constant in the future. For
short:
Definition. A regular trader is definedby his characteristics (ui, Oi, bi, i) and satisfies
(a.1), (c), and(d).
1 For any x in RN, x + denotesthe vectorof componentsmax (0, xn)for all n. In additionx = (-x)+.
That is, q >q' implies ui(q)> ui(q').
In what follows, the taxes an individualtradermust pay will follow a regularpattern. In addition,
the nominalrate of intereston moneyholdingswill be a constant. We implicitlyassumethat thesequantities
are fully anticipatedby the traders.
4 This is not really a restriction,since we only consider steady-statemarket equilibria,along which
relativepricesand the rate of inflationare constant.
2
3
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
153
(qi*-(oi)
2.
m* =M.
= 0
3. For every i, the programme (qi(t), ii(t)), defined by qi(t) = q* and mii(t)= m* for
all t > 0 is solution of the following problem:
max
t = oo
E 65ui(q(t))
(q(t), mr(t)) t = 0
subject to
mn = M.
1. p* *(qi*-wi)=0?
(q-ci) -iGi(p*, q)
154
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
155
wqi*
>jinand ol> q* >0. From Proposition 2.1, (3) and (4) and the fact that ui is differentiable, there exist )j>0 and 7ri= pjRjsuch that
=
and 5uj1aqj1
(Aj+kkj)p*,
auj10Eqj= (A.j+nij)pn*
where partial derivatives are taken at q*. As k< 1 and 7ri>0, one gets
> PnIPI
(0uj10@qjn)1(0uj10Eqjil)
Now, there must be a consumer j such that q* > Wjl. Choose Aj and 7rj which satisfy
Proposition 2.1. Since uj is differentiable, condition (4) of this proposition yields
I
OujlOqjl= (Aj+ rj)p*I
Consider the consumption good n. If
qj*n> WV,
aujl/qjn = (i+j)Pn
If q7n= 0)jnSwe have Ouj/aq?< ()j + rj)p*. Finally, if q* <b)jn,
=
()j + k7rj)p*.As k <1, crj> 0 we have in any case
Therefore, we find that there exist two traders i and j such that
(Ou ilOq n)l(OuilOqj) > (u j10q jn)1(0" j/1qjj)
where partial derivatives are taken at q* and q* respectively. Clearly, the allocation (q*)
is inefficient. Q.E.D.
The above concept of efficiency involved the comparison of the allocation (q*) with
all other allocations. One may think that this is asking too much since the redistribution of
endowments (ae) is not costless. Accordingly, an alternative approach would be to consider
the distribution (ae) as a datum and to require that any reallocation of consumption goods
must take place through the monetary exchange process as represented by the transactions
constraints (this is the point of view developed by F. Hahn in [6, 7]). However, we are
going to show that, if one strengthens slightly the assumptions of Theorem 2.2, a stationary
market equilibrium allocation (q*) is inefficient among the class of stationary allocations
of consumption goods which can be reached through the market mechanism, provided that
changes in the price level can be made at no cost. More precisely, if we start from a stationary market equilibrium (p*, (x4)), with x4 = (q*, m*) for all i, we shall show that it is
possible to find an allocation (qi) which dominates (q*) and a real number 0 <,B<1 such
that fp*.(qi -o)i) = 0 and Gi(/p*, qi) < m* for all i: in order to be able to reach the better
allocation (qi) by the monetary exchange process, all that is requiredis a lowerprice level.
Assume in Theorem 2.2 that there are two traders h and j and two consumption
goods n and I such that qh*n>Ohn, whi > q * and Ojn > qj*n q * > ojl. It follows that m* > 0
and m>
0.
Thus, if
(Ah, 7h)
and
nh
(Aj, 7tj)
= PhAh>O
and
nj = pjj>0.
(0uh10qhn)1(0Uh10qhj)
(2) (0uj10qin)1(0u<j
> Pn /PI
p /pn
Now choose a real number 0>0 and define a new allocation (qi(0)) as follows. For i # h, j
let qi(0)= q*. For the hth trader, let qhs(O)= q * for s : n, 1 qhn(O) = q * +0/p* and
For the jth trader, let qj,(O)= qJ* for s # n, I qjn(0) = qj*-0/p* and
qhl(0) = qhl- 0/pl.
=
qjl(O) q* + /pr. When 0 is small enough, qi(0)e RN for all i, Z (qi(0)- wi) = 0, while
156
Uh(qh(O))> Uh(qh) and u (q(O))> uj(q*) both hold. Fix such a 0, and consider the stationary
allocation (qi(0), m*) of consumption goods and of cash balances. The allocation (qi(O))
clearly dominates (q*). Given the price system p*, it seems to the individual traders that
this allocation is not attainable through the market mechanism. Indeed, the budget
constraints p*(qi(O)-woi) = 0 would be satisfied for all i, but the transactions constraint
would be violated for traders h andj, since Gi(p*, qi(O))> m* when i = h orj. On the other
hand, if we consider the economy as a whole at time 0, and if we start from the initial
distribution of money balances (m*), it is always possible to achieve the stationary allocation
(qi(O)) in every period, taking as a datum the distribution of endowments (wOi)and the
market mechanism. All that is required is a lower price level. More precisely, it is sufficient
to choose B>0 small enough such that, if = flp*, one has P(qi(O)-w(oi) = 0 and
Z(x()-
wi)
0,
and that the corresponding allocation (xi(P)) is Pareto efficient (see, e.g. G. Debreu [2, (1)
of 6.3]). If we assume in addition that for everyp in P, there exists an i such that xi(P) = wi,
we are sure that for some i, xi(P) = oi, hence pi(P)>O. Now define # as M/(Z pi()) and
p*= ,p. Then the stationary allocation (xi(p*), pi(p*)) can be reached through the market
mechanism if we set the price system equal to p*, for we have
(xi(P*) - wi) = 0,
wi) = 0 and
for all i.
This makes clear that the basic cause of the inefficiency in this model is the assumption
that traders discount the future. This again agrees with the literature. As a corollary,
one would expect that if traders were not impatient, any stationary market equilibrium
would be Pareto efficient. It turns out that this fact is an immediate consequence of a
result which was proved in an earlier paper [5], when we studied the classical dichotomy.
One can say that the classical dichotomy holds in this model if for any market equilibrium
(p*, (x4)), the relation x = (xi(p*), ji(p*)) is true for every traderi. It is plain from Theorem
2.2 that the dichotomy is in general invalid. However, it can be shown that under some
assumptions, the dichotomy holds in the limit when the traders' rates of time preference
go to zero [5, Theorem 2.5]. Therefore, the equilibrium allocation of consumption goods
becomes efficient in the limit. Alternatively, one can directly assume that traders do not
discount the future and that they use the " overtaking " criterion. It can then be shown
that the classical dichotomy is valid [5, Theorem 3.2]. The corresponding stationary
allocation is thus Pareto efficient.
Hi(p)* = M, p*(xi(p*)
Gi(p*,
%i(P*)) = pi(p*)
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
157
(2)
mi = M
(3) For every i, the programme (qi(t), Fiii(t)),t _ 0 defined by qi(t) = q i*and
m-i(t)= otlm*
for t _ 0
is solution of:
max
t =oo
E
(q(t), m(t))
t = 0
6ui(q(t))
subject to
(i)
at +lp* * (q(t)-i)
+ m(t)-m(t-
1)-ai(t)
158
(Remark. Here again, since ui is strictly monotone, the equality sign in (i) can be
replaced by the inequality sign ?.)
It must be noted that (3) of the above definition can be equivalently stated as follows:
(3 bis) For every i, the programme (qi(t), m-i'(t)),t _ 0, defined by -i(t)= q* and
m-i(t)= m* for t > 0 is solution of:
t= o
max
m'(t))
(q(t)
t = 0
3iui(q(t))
subject to
= 0
>
Oilo)(Ai+ni),
with equality if m* >0. It is possible to justify this relation heuristically by the same type
of reasoning we used in the discussion of Proposition 2.1. First, consider the one period
problem:
max ui(q)
subject to
p * (q -
Gi(p*, q) _ (I /a)(m
and
i-
*(I
OiM)
- )OiM)
q > 0.
It is easily seen from Lemma 5.1 and Corollary 5.2 that q* is the solution of this problem,
and that Ai and zi are the dual variables of the budget and transactions constraints. Now,
imagine that the ith trader examines a switch from his optimal steady programme of
moneyholdings(gt+ 'mr) to (gt+ '(mr + dm))for t > 0, initialcashbalancesat the beginning
of period 0 being m* in both cases. Then the marginal loss of utility in period 0 is Aidm.
+ (ri/tc)dm.
The undiscounted marginal gain of utility in every period t > 1 is Ai((l - C)koc)dm
Total discounted gain is precisely:
[A (I
1i
+ ici
- )o
i]
dm
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
159
which must be nonnegative. The first term represents the total gain of utility due to the
income effect; the second term represents the total gain due to the transaction effect.
Elementary calculus shows that the above expression can be written
[(3i/c#)Gt + 2i)
)j]dm,
= Aidm,
which is due to the income affect. As a result, we shall see that every Pareto efficient
allocation of consumption goods (q*) can be sustained by a continuum of steady market
equilibria. The following set of results will make this precise. We first give a characterization of steady-state market equilibria when a = 5.
Theorem 3.1. Consider a regular economy E= (I, (ui), (wi), (36), (gfr), (0), k, M, ot)
, mi) E RN+1 for all i, with
Z(qi -
'ij)= 0.
Then(p*, (x4)) defines a steady market equilibriumfor E if and only if thefollowing conditions
hold,for all i:
(1) p* *(q i*C())
= ((1-cc)/oe)(m
-OiM)
160
order to show that (p*, (x4)) defines a steady market equilibrium it is sufficient to prove
that for every i, there exist two numbers Aiand ni which satisfy all the conditions of Lemma
5.1. Now by (3) and by the Kuhn-Tucker Theorem [10, Theorem 7.1.2], we know that
there exists Ai such that q* maximizes the function of q: ui(q)-ip* *(qi- w) over RN. It
suffices to take 7ri = 0 in order to get the numbers we are looking for. Q.E.D.
We get as a Corollary:
Corollary3.2. Considera regular economy E as in Theorem3.1. For any steady market
equilibrium(p*, (x4)) of this economy, with x4 = (q*, m*) for all i, the allocation (q*) is
Pareto efficient.
Proof. Apply (3) of Theorem 3.1 and [2, (1) of 6.3]. Q.E.D.
The following two corollaries show that the converse result is also true: for any
Pareto allocation (q*) of consumption goods, it is possible to find a steady-state market
equilibrium which achieves this allocation. There is more: there are infinitely many
steady-state equilibria corresponding to the same allocation of consumption goods.
Corollary 3.3. Consider a regular economy E as in Theorem 3.1 and assume i>0 for
all i. Take any Pareto efficient allocation of consumptiongoods (q*). Then there exist p*
in P such that, if m* = OiM+ (a/(1 - o))p* (q- wi) for all i, (p*, (q*, mr)) defines a steady
market equilibriumfor the economy E.
Proof. It is well known that under our assumptions there exists a price system p in P
such that q* maximizes ui over {q E RN I p q ?
qi} (see, e.g., [14, Ch. 4, Theorem 4]
which can be easily extended to cover the case q* = 0 for some i). Choose ,B>0 close
enough to zero so that, if m*(f3)= OiM+ (o/(l - oc))flp (q* - wi) for all i, then
mi*(#> (I
(-k)# pp (qi*- oi)for all i. This is always possible since OiM>O for all i. Then check that (fl,, (q*, m*(fl)))
defines a steady-state market equilibrium by applying Theorem 3.1. Q.E.D.
Note that this result indirectly proves that there exist steady-state market equilibria,
since Pareto efficient allocations (qi) do exist in our economy [2, (1) of 6.2]. Note also
that this existence theorem holds even for k = 1; on the other hand in the case of a constant
money stock, stationary market equilibria do not exist [5, Theorem 2.4]! Again, this is
due to the presence of an income effect.
x
Corollary 3.4. Consider a regular economy E as in Theorem 3.1. Let (p*, (x4)), with
(q*, m*) for all i, be a steady market equilibrium. Let, for every i and every />0,
m*(,B)= OiM+(L(/(1-L))3p* .(q -oi)
= sup {,B mi(/) > (1-k)#p* (q*-oi)- for all i}. One has ft ? 1. Then
and consider13
for every 0<ft< J (with possibly ,B= ft if the latter is finite), (pp*, (q*, m*(/B)))defines a
steady market equilibriumfor the economy. In addition, ft is ihfinite if and only if either
(1) " k = 1 and m* = OiMfor all i ", or (2) " k : 1 and q = oifor all i " holds.
The proof of this result is easily obtained by adapting the reasoning used for Corollary
3.3. This is left to the reader. Corollary 3.4 shows that if we consider all the steady-state
market equilibria corresponding to a given Pareto efficient allocation of consumption goods,
relative prices are determined, but the price level can be taken arbitrarily low. However,
in most cases, transactions constraints impose an upper bound on this price level (the cases
where there is no upper bound are those for which money is not needed in transactions in
order to achieve the equilibrium allocation of consumption goods).
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
161
The following result shows that the implementation of the monetary policy which was
described in this section may be very dangerous in this economy, for it may introduce
great instability in the actual path followed by the economy over time. If one slightly
" overshoots ", that is, if a < 3, then steady-state market equilibria no longer exist. Again,
this is due to the presence of an income effect. In that case, when a trader is faced by
steadilydecreasingprices(at+ lp*), t > 0, he is unwillingto keephis realbalancesconstant:
it always pays him to increase his real money holdings.
Theorem 3.5. Consider a regular economy E = (1, (ui), (w1), (bi), (//i), (0i), k, M, x)
where (5i = ( for all i, and a<(5. Then no steady-state market equilibriumexists.
Proof. Assume the contrary and consider a steady-state market equilibrium (p*, (x4)),
with x4 = (q, m*) for all i. There must be an i such that q* =A0. Therefore, Lemma 5.1
and Corollary 5.2 can be applied. It would follow that there exist )i>>0 and ic. > 0 such
that Ai > (c/oc)QL1+7c). This would imply ici<O, which is impossible. Q.E.D.
The reader can check for himself that none of this section's results depends on the
particular form we gave to the functions Gj(p, q). We need only assume that the Gi's are
(1) homogeneous of degree one in prices p and (2) convex and strictly increasing in q (check
that Lemma 5.1 and Corollary 5.2 of the appendix are valid under these assumptions).
One should however be cautious when drawing conclusions from these results: some of
them may depend on the form given to the traders' utility functions and in particular on
the assumption that a trader's rate of time preference pi is independent of his consumption.
The study of the case where the pi's depend on consumption (which appears rather difficult
at first sight) was outside the scope of this paper.
4. THE LONG RUN NEUTRALITY OF INTEREST PAYMENTS ON MONEY
We assume in this section that the government pays interest on money and levies lump sum
taxes on all individuals. We shall show that interest payments can have no effect on the
" real " magnitudes of steady-state market equilibria.
As before, the economy is composed of I regular traders (ui, wi, bi, i), i = 1, ..., I.
The exchange process is described by the parameter 0< k ? 1. Now, let M(t -1) be the
total stock of money which is available for trade in period t - 1. It also represents the
outstanding stock of money at the outset of period t before any interest or tax payment.
We assume that the government pays a rate of interest r > - 1 on money holdings which is
constant over time, so that the value of interest payments at the beginning of period t is
rM(t - 1). We assume on the other hand that the government levies lump sum taxes to be
paid in money which are equal to (a- 1)(1+r)M(t- 1), where a is constant over time and
satisfies 0<a < 1. It follows that the money stock M(t) which is available for trade in
If M> 0 denotes the total stock of money at the outset
period t is equal to x(1+ r)M(t-1).
of period 0 before any interest or tax payment, then one has M(t) = t+1(1 +r)t+'M. We
assume as before that the distribution of taxes is fixed and characterized by I nonnegative
numbers 0i which satisfy Oi= 1. It follows that the amount of taxes ai(t) < 0 the ith
trader must pay at the beginning of period t is equal to Oi(a- I)xt(1 + r)tM. The whole
(regular)economy is denoted by E = (I, ui, wi, bi(, i, k, M, x, r). If r =0, we get the type
of economy we considered in the previous section. If r = 0 and a = 1, the economy is
the one we described in Section 2.
As before, a steady-state market equilibrium is a sequence of short run equilibria,
where relative prices are constant, the price level grows (or decreases) at the same rate as
the total money stock, while " real " quantities are constant. As relative prices and the
rate of inflation are constant over time, assumption (d) tells us that they are fully anticipated
by the traders. Formally, we shall say that (p*, (xi*)) where p* belongs to P and
)
Xi=(qi,m
162
belongs to RN+ 1 for all i, definesa steady (or steady-state) market equilibriumfor the regular
economy E if:
(1)
(q*-wi)=O
(2) Em* =M
(3) For every i, the programme (qi(t), fiii(t)), t > 0, defined by qi(t) = q* and
iiim(t)= xt+ 1+r)t+ lm* for t > 0
is solution of:
t =oo
max
(q(t), m(t))
t = 0
5tui(q(t))
subject to
(i) at+1(J + r)t+lp* (q(t)-w1i)+ m(t)-(1 + r)m(t-1)-ai(t)
+1
oi) + m'(t)
m'(t -1)
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
163
Let u be a real valued function defined on RN, concave and strictly monotone. Let 3
be a real number, 0 < 6 < 1. Choose p E RN, p > > 0 and let coE RN, w > 0. As in the text,
where k > 0. As G(p, q) can be written
for any q E RN, G(p, q) = p *(q-) -+kp -(q-)
p(q- o)+ (1- k)p(q- w), G is convex in q. Let x be a positive real number. Consider
the following.
Problem. Given m* > 0, choose (q(t), m(t)) E R'++1'for t ? 0 in order to maximize
00
+ m(t)-m(t-
1)-a(t)
? 0
= E
3t[u(q(t))-u(q(t))].
By (4),
T
A>
0
3[Ap * (q(t)-q(t))
By (1), (2) and the fact that y satisfies the problem's constraints,
T
A Ld'
> tX+l[(-1)-ffi(t)
0
+m(t)-m(t-
A>
(t/xt+
1)(hi(t)-m(t))((/)()
+ i)
A)
From (3), the first term is nonnegative. Since m(T) > 0, we get
A > _(6T/ICT+l)Affi(T)
164
As mi(T) =
lm*, A >
oT+
Yt(u(j(t))
u(q(t))) > 0.
E btu(q(t)) subject to
0
(i) At'p
1)-a(t) ? 0
+ m(t)-m(t-
*(q(t)-)
1)-a(t) < 0
< 0
(1')
AT(t)
? 0 andp-(q*-co)-z
(2')
7CT(t)
(3')
AT(t- 1)
(8/c)(AT(t)+rcT(t))
(for t > 0)
? 0 (for t ? 0)
and m* > 0 (for t > 1)
TT(t))
Now define
T =
(1/(T+ 1)) E
o
and
)T(t)
ICT =
(I /(T+ 1)) L
o
XrT(t).
> 0 andp.(q*-)-z
T -(1/(T+
< 0
_ 0
1))AT(T) ? (b/l)[AT+
wT-(1/(T+
1))(AT(O)+ 7T(O))]
and m* > 0
7T 1')
In order to achieve the proof, it is sufficient to prove that the set D c R2 of pairs (A, 7r)
such that (D(q; A, rr)is maximized on RI at q* is compact. For in that case, any limit
point of the sequence (AT, XtT) as T tends to infinity would have the properties we are looking
for. Now for any (Q, 7t) in D, FD(q*;A, 7r) _ D(0; A, 7r), hence:
u(q*) - u(O) > Ap q* + 7r(G(p, q*) - G(p, 0)).
Now, as q* # 0, p .q* > 0 and G(p, q*) > G(p, 0). It follows that D is bounded. As D is
clearly closed, the proof is complete. Q.E.D.
Corollary 5.2. In Lemma 5.1, condition (1) can be replaced by:
(1 bis) A >0 and p* (q*-)-z
Proof. If i = 0,
impossible. Q.E.D.
ir
0.
= 0 by (3) and from (4), u(q*) > u(q) for all q in R', which is
MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM
165
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Grandmont, J. M., and Younes, Y. " On the Role of Money and the Existence of a
Monetary Equilibrium ", Review of Economic Studies, 39 (July 1972).
Hahn, F. H. " Equilibrium with Transaction Costs ", Econometrica, 39 (1971),
417-439.
[6]
[7]
Hahn, F. H.
61-80.
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
Patinkin. Money, Interest and Prices (Harper and Row, New York, 2nd Ed., 1965).
[16]
Samuelson, P. A. " What Classical and Neoclassical Monetary Theory Really Was ",
CanadianJournal of Economics, 1 (1968), 1-15.
[17]
[20] Younes, Y. " Relation entre l'Existence d'un Programme Optimal et l'Existence
d'un Programme Regulier Competitif et Efficient ", Cahiers du Se'minaired'Economnitrie,10 (1968), 31-59.
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