Paying interest on required reserves is considered in an overlapping generations model in which the return to capital dominates the return to flat money. As Smith (1991) showed, financing interest on reserves benefits the initial old at the expense of future generations. We show that the...

This paper presents a model in which agents choose to use money as a medium of exchange, a means of payment, and a unit of account. The paper defines conditions under which nominal contracts, promising future payment of a fixed number of units of fiat money, prove to be the optimal contract form...

Paying interest on required reserves is considered in an overlapping generations model in which the return to capital dominates the return to fiat money. As Smith (1991) showed, financing interest on reserves benefits the initial old at the expense of future generations. We show that the...