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Credit cards and inflation

  • Yale University
  • Santa Fe Institute

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The introduction and widespread use of credit cards increases trading efficiency but, by also increasing the velocity of money, it causes inflation, in the absence of monetary intervention. If the monetary authority attempts to restore pre-credit card price levels by reducing the money supply, it might have to sacrifice the efficiency gains.When there is default on credit cards, there is even more inflation, and less efficiency gains. The monetary authority might then have to accept less than pre-credit card efficiency in order to restore pre-credit card price levels, or else it will have to accept inflation if it is unwilling to cut efficiency below pre-credit card levels. This could be a source of stagflation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)325-353
Number of pages29
JournalGames and Economic Behavior
Volume70
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2010

Keywords

  • Central bank
  • Credit cards
  • Inflation
  • Inside money
  • Outside money
  • Stagflation

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