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MONEY ILLUSION AND MARKET SURVIVAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2015

Roland Eisenhuth
Roland Eisenhuth*
Affiliation:
Oregon State University
*
Address correspondence to: Roland Eisenhuth, School of Public Policy—Economics Program, Oregon State University, 303 Ballard Extension Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; e-mail: roland.eisenhuth@oregonstate.edu.
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Abstract

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By studying complete and incomplete dynamic financial markets, I show that if some agents are money-illusioned and neglect inflation, the rational agents who are aware of inflation are driven out of the market in the long run, in the sense that the money-illusioned agents consume the economy's entire endowment. The reason for this finding is that with inflation, the money-illusioned agents always believe that the return on their savings is higher than it actually is. Because these agents trade financial assets in markets with the rational agents, the rational agents end up being borrowers and the money-illusioned agents lenders. Because the rational agents' debt accumulates over time, they become so indebted that the money-illusioned agents eventually consume the economy's entire endowment. If there is deflation, the opposite is true, and the rational agents evolutionarily dominate.

Keywords

Money IllusionEvolutionary SurvivalMonetary PolicyInflation

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

References

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