Chapter 19

The Demand for Money

 Quantity Theory of Money
the quantity theory of money is a theory of how the nominal
value of aggregate income is determined. Because it also
tells us how much money is held for a given amount of
income, it is also a theory of the demand for money.

Velocity of Money and Equation of Exchange

Irving Fisher examined the link between the total quantity of
money M (the money supply) and the total amount of
spending (P × Y), (aggregate nominal income or nominal
GDP.)
Velocity of Money and Equation of Exchange

The concept that provides the link between M and (P × Y)

is called the velocity of money, the rate of turnover of
money; or the average number of times per year that a
dollar is spent in buying the total amount of goods and
services produced in the economy. Velocity V is defined
as total spending (P × Y) divided by the quantity of money
M:
V = (P × Y) l M (1)
e.g., if nominal GDP (P × Y ) = $5 billion and M = $1 billion,
velocity is 5
Velocity of Money and Equation of Exchange

By multiplying both sides by M, we obtain the equation of

exchange, which relates nominal income to M and V :
M×V=P×Y
The equation of exchange states that the quantity of
money multiplied by its velocity must be equal to nominal
income.
Velocity of Money and Equation of Exchange

Fisher reasoned that velocity is determined by the

institutions in an economy that affect the way individuals
conduct transactions. If people use less cash (credit
cards) to pay for their purchases V increases.
But if they pay using cash or checks, velocity decreases.
Fisher took the view that the institutional and
technological features of the economy would affect
velocity only slowly over time, so velocity would normally
be reasonably constant in the short run.
Quantity Theory
Quantity Theory of money
Because V is constant in the short run, the equation of
exchange states that nominal income is determined solely
by movements in M. When M doubles, M × V doubles and
so must P × Y,
Classical economists (including Fisher) thought that
wages and prices were completely flexible, they believed
that the level of aggregate output Y produced in the
economy during normal times would remain at the full-
employment level, so Y in the equation of exchange could
also be treated as reasonably constant in the short run.
Quantity Theory
The quantity theory of money then implies that if M
doubles, P must also double in the short run, because V
and Y are constant.
For the classical economists, movements in the price
level result solely from changes in the quantity of money.
Quantity Theory of Money Demand
Because the quantity theory of money tells us how much
money is held for a given amount of aggregate income, it
is in fact a theory of the demand for money.

dividing both sides of the equation of exchange by V, thus

rewriting it as:
M = (1/V) × PY

Using k to represent the quantity 1/V (a constant, because

V is a constant), we can rewrite the equation as:
Md = k × PY (3)
Quantity Theory of Money Demand
Equation 3 tells us that because k is a constant, the level
of transactions generated by a fixed level of nominal
income PY determines the quantity of money Md that
people demand.

Therefore, Fisher’s quantity theory of money suggests

that the demand for money is purely a function of income,
and interest rates have no effect on the demand for
money.
Quantity Theory of Money Demand
The demand for money is determined
1) by the level of transactions generated by the level of
nominal income PY and

2) by the institutions in the economy that affect the way

people conduct transactions and thus determine velocity
and hence k.
Quantity Theory and Inflation
Percentage Change in (x ✕ y) = (Percentage Change in x) +
(Percentage change in y)

Using this mathematical fact, we can rewrite the equation of

exchange as follows:
%M  %V  %P  %Y
Subtracting from both sides of the preceding equation, and
recognizing that the inflation rate, is the growth rate of the price level,
  %P  %M  %V  %Y

Since we assume velocity is constant, its growth rate is zero, so the

quantity theory of money is also a theory of inflation:
  % M  %  Y
 Figure 1 Relationship Between Inflation and
Money Growth

Sources: For panel (a), Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, Monetary trends in the United States and the United Kingdom: Their Relation to Income, Prices,
and Interest Rates, 1867–1975, Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED), Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/categories/25 and Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu. For panel (b), International
Financial Statistics. International Monetary Fund, www.imfstatistics.org/imf/.
Keynes’s Liquidity Preference Theory

• In his theory, the liquidity preference theory Keynes asked

the question: Why do individuals hold money? He
postulated that there are three motives behind the
demand for money:
 the transactions motive,
 the precautionary motive, and
 the speculative motive.
Transactions Motive
Primarily determined by the level of people’s transactions,
which is proportional to income, like the classical
economists, he took the transactions component of the
demand for money to be proportional to income
Precautionary Motive

• people hold money as a cushion against an unexpected

need, e.g., shop sales, an unexpected bill, say for car
repair or hospitalization.

• Keynes believed that the amount of precautionary money

balances people want to hold is determined primarily by
the level of transactions that they expect to make in the
future and that these transactions are proportional to
income
Speculative Motive

Keynes took the view that money is a store of wealth and

called this reason for holding money the speculative
motive.
Keynes looked more carefully at the factors that influence
the decisions regarding how much money to hold as a
store of wealth, especially interest rates
Keynes divided the assets that can be used to store
wealth into two categories: money and bonds.
Keynes assumed that the expected return on money was
zero.
Keynes’s Liquidity Preference Theory

 For bonds, there are two components of the expected

return: the interest payment and the expected rate of
capital gains.
 Keynes assumed that individuals believe that interest
rates gravitate to some normal value (an assumption less
plausible in today’s world).
 If interest rates are below this normal value, individuals
expect the interest rate on bonds to rise in the future and
so expect to suffer capital losses on them. As a result,
individuals will be more likely to hold their wealth as
money rather than bonds, and the demand for money will
be high.
Keynes’s Liquidity Preference Theory

 when interest rates are above the normal value, people

will expect interest rates to fall, bond prices to rise, and
capital gains to be realized. At higher interest rates, they
are more likely to expect the return from holding a bond to
be positive, thus exceeding the expected return from
holding money. They will be more likely to hold bonds
than money, and the demand for money will be quite low.
 Conclusion: as interest rates rise, the demand for money
falls, and therefore money demand is negatively related to
the level of interest rates.
Putting the Three Motives Together
Md
 f (i,Y ) where the demand for real money balances is
P
negatively related to the interest rate i,
and positively related to real income Y
Rewriting
P 1
d

M f (i,Y )
Multiply both sides by Y and replacing M d with M
PY Y
V 
M f (i,Y )
Putting the Three Motives Together
(cont’d)
• Velocity is not constant:
• The procyclical movement of interest rates should induce
procyclical movements in velocity.
• Velocity will change as expectations about future normal levels of
interest rates change
Further Developments in the Keynesian Approach

Transactions Demand
William Baumol and James Tobin independently
developed similar demand for money models, which
demonstrated that even money balances held for
transactions purposes are sensitive to the level of interest
rates.
They considered a hypothetical individual who receives a
payment once a period and spends it over the course of
this period, as shown in the following graph.
FIGURE 2 Cash Balances in the
Baumol-Tobin Model
Keynes’s Liquidity Preference Theory

The conclusion of the Baumol-Tobin analysis may be

stated as follows: As interest rates increase, the amount
of cash held for transactions purposes will decline, which
in turn means that velocity will increase as interest rates
increase.
Put another way, the transactions component of the
demand for money is negatively related to the level of
interest rates, i.e., the transactions demand for money,
and not just the speculative demand, will be sensitive to
interest rates.
Precautionary Demand
• As interest rates rise, the opportunity cost of holding
precautionary balances rises, and so the holdings of these
money balances fall.
• We then have a result similar to the one found for the
Baumol-Tobin analysis. The precautionary demand for
money is negatively related to interest rates.
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of
Money
Instead of analyzing the specific motives for holding
money, as Keynes did, Friedman simply stated that the
demand for money must be influenced by the same
factors that influence the demand for any asset
The theory of asset demand indicates that the demand for
money should be a function of the resources available to
individuals (their wealth) and the expected returns on
other assets relative to the expected return on money.
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of Money

Friedman expressed his formulation of the demand for

money as follows:
+ - - -

Md/P= f (Yp , rb - rm, re - rm, πe - rm)

where Md/P = demand for real money balances

Yp = permanent income
rm = expected return on money
rb = expected return on bonds
re = expected return on equity (common stocks)
πe = expected inflation rate
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of Money

money demand is positively related to Friedman’s wealth

concept, permanent income, which has much smaller
short-run fluctuations.
Friedman categorized other assets into three: bonds,
equity, and goods.
The incentives for holding these assets rather than
money are represented by the expected return on each of
these assets relative to the expected return on money. As
each relative return rises, the demand for money will fall
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of Money

Distinguishing Between the Friedman and Keynesian

Theories.
Friedman recognized more than one interest rate in his
demand for money function, Keynes, lumped financial
assets other than money into one bonds because he felt
that their returns generally move together.
Friedman viewed money and goods as substitutes; that
is, people choose between them when deciding how much
money to hold.
Friedman did not take the expected return on money to
be a constant, as Keynes did.
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of Money

Unlike Keynes’s theory, which indicates that interest rates

are an important determinant of the demand for money,
Friedman’s theory suggests that changes in interest rates
should have little effect on the demand for money, such
that his money demand equation can be approximated by:
Md/p = f(Yp)

Friedman stressed the stability of the demand for money

function and suggested that random fluctuations in the
demand for money are small and that the demand for
money can be predicted accurately by the money demand
function.
Friedman’s Modern Quantity Theory of Money

Velocity is highly predictable. We can see this by writing

down the velocity that is implied by the money demand
equation:
V = Y/f (Yp )

If velocity is predictable, a change in the quantity of

money will produce a predictable change in aggregate
spending.
Therefore, Friedman’s theory of money demand is indeed
a restatement of the quantity theory, because it leads to
the same conclusion about the importance of money to
aggregate spending.
Interest Rates and Money Demand
We have established that if interest rates do not affect the
demand for money, velocity is more likely to be constant
—or at least predictable—so that the quantity theory view
that aggregate spending is determined by the quantity of
money is more likely to be true
M×V=P×Y
However, the more sensitive the demand for money is to
interest rates, the more unpredictable velocity will be, and
the less clear the link between the money supply and
aggregate spending will be
Stability of Money Demand
If the money demand function is unstable and undergoes
substantial, unpredictable shifts as Keynes believed, then
velocity is unpredictable, and the quantity of money may
not be tightly linked to aggregate spending, as it is in the
quantity theory
M×V=P×Y

The stability of the money demand function is also crucial

to whether the Federal Reserve should target interest
rates or the money supply
Stability of Money Demand (cont’d)
If the money demand function is unstable and so the
money supply is not closely linked to aggregate spending,
then the level of interest rates the Fed sets will provide
more information about the stance of monetary policy than
will the money supply