DP11368 On the Money Creation Approach to Banking

Author(s):	Salomon Faure, Hans Gersbach
Publication Date:	June 2016
Date Revised:	July 2020
Keyword(s):	Money creation - Bank deposits - Capital regulation - Zero lower bound - Monetary policy - Price rigidities
JEL(s):	D50, E4, E5, G21
Programme Areas:	Financial Economics, Monetary Economics and Fluctuations
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=11368

We study today's two-tier money creation and destruction by commercial banks via deposit/loan creation to firms and by central banks via deposit/loan creation to commercial banks. In a simple general equilibrium setting, we show that symmetric equilibria yield the first-best level of money creation and lending when prices are flexible, regardless of monetary policy and capital regulation. When prices are rigid, we identify the circumstances in which money creation is excessive or breaks down and the ones in which an adequate combination of monetary policy and capital regulation can restore efficiency. Finally, we provide a series of extensions and generalizations of the results.