Wilhelm Lautenbach’s credit mechanics – a precursor to the current money supply debate

Decker, Frank and Goodhart, Charles A. E. (2022) Wilhelm Lautenbach’s credit mechanics – a precursor to the current money supply debate. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 29 (2). pp. 246-270. ISSN 0967-2567

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Abstract

This article assesses the theory of credit mechanics within the context of the current money supply debate. Credit mechanics and related approaches were developed by a group of German monetary economists during the 1920s-1960s. Credit mechanics overcomes a one-sided, bank-centric view of money creation, which is often encountered in monetary theory. We show that the money supply is influenced by the interplay of loan creation and repayment rates; the relative share of credit volume neutral debtor-to-debtor and creditor-to-creditor payments; the availability of loan security; and the behaviour of non-banks and non-borrowing bank creditors. With the standard textbook models of money creation now discredited, we argue that a more general approach to money supply theory involving credit mechanics needs to be re-established.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Divisions:	Financial Markets Group
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HG Finance
JEL classification:	E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E40 - General E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E41 - Demand for Money E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit > E50 - General E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit > E51 - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2021 13:30
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 02:37
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111819

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