Payment networks in a search model of money

In a simple search model of money, we study a special kind of memory which gives rise to an arrangement resembling a payment network. Specifically, we assume that agents can pay a cost to have access to a central data base which keeps track of payments made and received. Incentives must be provided to agents to access the central data base and to produce when they have access to this arrangement. We also study policies that can loosen these incentive constraints. In particular, we show that a `no-surcharge' rule has good incentive properties. Finally, we compare our model with the model of Cavalcanti and Wallace (1999 a and b). (Copyright: Elsevier)