Money is more than memory

Bigoni, Maria ; Camera, Gabriele ; Casari, Marco (2015) Money is more than memory. Bologna: Dipartimento di Scienze economiche DSE, p. 65. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/4350. In: Quaderni - Working Paper DSE (1030). ISSN 2282-6483.
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Abstract

Impersonal exchange is the hallmark of an advanced society and money is one key institution that supports it. Economic theory regards money as a crude arrangement for monitoring counterparts’ past conduct. If so, then a public record of past actions—or memory—should supersede the function performed by money. This intriguing theoretical postulate remains untested. In an experiment, we show that the suggested functional equivalence between money and memory does not translate into an empirical equivalence. Monetary systems perform a richer set of functions than just revealing past behaviors, which are crucial in promoting large-scale cooperation.

Abstract
Document type
Monograph (Working Paper)
Creators
CreatorsAffiliationORCID
Bigoni, Maria
Camera, Gabriele
Casari, Marco
Keywords
Cooperation, intertemporal trade, experiments, social norms
Subjects
ISSN
2282-6483
DOI
Deposit date
23 Sep 2015 09:23
Last modified
23 Oct 2015 09:26
URI

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