Three Decades of Money Demand Studies. Some Differences and Remarkable Similarities

By analyzing almost 1000 money demand estimations this paper attempts to summarize the disperse findings of this literature. Using both descriptive statistics and meta-regressions we derive several stylized facts about the two most prominent determinants of money demand–income and interest rate elasticities. In particular, we show that the size and signs of average elasticities are systematically related to the choice of included variables (e.g., M1 or M3, short-run or long-run interest rates), the country grouping (e.g., US vs. Germany) and the empirical specification (e.g., the inclusion of one or two interest rates).