The Contributions of Knapp and Innes to the Chartalist Theory of Money

Guidorzzi Girotto, Vitor and Strachman, Eduardo (2024): The Contributions of Knapp and Innes to the Chartalist Theory of Money.

Abstract

The relationship between money and credit is analyzed differently between schools of economic thought. Orthodoxy, in general, analyzes it using the commodity money approach; heterodoxy, in large part, adopts the Chartist approach. The crucial difference between them lies in the fact, as put by Schumpeter, that orthodoxy postulates a monetary theory of credit; the heterodox, a credit theory of money. For the latter, money is, by nature, credit, and it can take different forms, tangible or not. The State uses it sovereignty to delimit the monetary system by defining what will (or will not) be accepted as money in the payments of transactions due to itself. Thus, Knapp’s contribution in structuring a theory of state money meets Innes’s credit theory of money and, together, these contributions offer a solid theoretical and historical framework for the formulation of an alternative theory of money, the Chartist theory.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Money; Chartalism; Credit; Knapp; Innes.
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E12 - Keynes ; Keynesian ; Post-Keynesian; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E42 - Monetary Systems ; Standards ; Regimes ; Government and the Monetary System ; Payment Systems; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit > E51 - Money Supply ; Credit ; Money Multipliers

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