Seminar Advanced Monetary Theory and Policy (Master) WS 2019/2020

Cash

Selection of topics

  1. India's Demonitization Experiment (Chodorow-Reich et al. 2018, Krishnan and Siegel 2017)
  2. Costs and Benefits to Phasing out Paper Currency (Rogoff 2015, 2017)
  3. Central Bank-Issued Digital Currency (Keister and Sanches 2018, Bordo and Levin 2017)
  4. The Use of Euro Currency (Bartsch et al. 2013)
  5. Free to Choose: Self-Selection of a Topic in Monetary Economcis

Organization

  • Each seminar participant has to choose one topic from the selection above. Credit points are granted for preparing a term paper, presenting the results in front of the class as well as for active participation during the seminar. Students are expected to critically analyze recent academic articles and to present and elaborate the findings contained therein. Emphasis should be placed on the theoretical and methodological aspects of the pertinent literature as well as on the empirical and econometric testing procedures.
  • Topics will be assigned to students on a first-come, first-served basis. Students should send an e-mail to martin.bohl@wiwi.uni-muenster.de with a shortlist of three preferred topics. Joint work is possible, but only a maximum of three students can work on one single topic.
  • Each student has to prepare and submit a term paper comprising no more than 10 to 15 pages. The term paper is supposed to contain a cover page, a table of contents, a reference list (bibliography) and – where applicable – an appendix. There are no style requirements, however, margins, font size, spacing and so forth should be chosen appropriately. Deadline for paper submission is September 30, 2019 (no later than 12:00 p.m.). Please turn in your seminar paper at the chair’s office (Chair of Monetary Economics, room 102, Am Stadtgraben 9). Please turn in a print version of your seminar paper and send a PDF-version to martin.bohl@wiwi.uni-muenster.de.
  • Each student needs to prepare his/her own seminar paper. However, since there will be only one presentation of the topic during the course, participants are supposed to work in groups of at most three students and deliver a joint presentation of their results. The presentation is supposed to last about 20 minutes and will be followed by a discussion, which should be animated and led by the presenters.
  • The seminar will take place in the form of a block course on October 10, 2019 (9:00 - 12:00 p.m.) in room STA2, Am Stadtgraben 9. On this day presentations will be given and mutually discussed. Attendance is therefore mandatory.
  • The final grade is based on the term paper (80%) and on the presentation/participation during the seminar (20%). Please be aware that enrollment for the class should be carried out at the examination office (Prüfungsamt) for the early deadline of the winter term 2019/2020 (vorgezogener Termin).
  • 6 Credit points can be obtained for this class (Master, PO 2015). Course language is English only.
  • Topics will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Martin T. Bohl. Students should send the outline and structure of the term paper before-hand via e-mail to martin.bohl@wiwi.uni-muenster.de so that the contents can be discussed.

Literature

The references below should be merely considered for orientation purposes and shall lay the foundations for the students’ further research. Please note that a thorough literature review is an integral part of the grading. Emphasis should be placed on recent academic research published in top-ranked English-speaking journals.

Bartzsch, N., Rösl, G. and Seitz, F. (2013), Currency movements within and outside a currency union: The case of Germany and the euro area, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 53, 393-401.

Bordo, M.D. and Levin, A.T. (2017), Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy, NBER Working Paper Series No. 23711, Available at http://www.nber.org/papers/w23711.

Chodorow-Reich, G., Gopinath, G., Mishra, P. and Narayanan, A. (2018), Cash and the Economy: Evidence from India’s Demonetization, NBER Working Paper Series No. 25370, Available at:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w25370.

Keister, T. and Sanches, D. (2018), Should Central Banks Issue Digital Currency?, Working Paper.

Krishnan, D. and Siegel, S. (2017), Effects of Demonetization: Evidence from 28 Slum Neighborhoods in Mumbai, (January 7, 2017). Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2896026 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2896026

Rogoff, K. (2015), Costs and Benefits to Phasing out paper Currency, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Vol. 29,
No. 1, 445-456.

Rogoff, K. (2017), Dealing with Monetary Paralysis at the Zero Bound, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fol. 31, Number 3, 47-66.