Una aproximación teórico-empírica al problema de la sustitución de monedas

Abstract

Currency substitution, a phenomenon that is tightly linked to the nature of money, obeys to a cost-benefit analysis, in which transaction costs evaluation is specially important. They generate, in the short run, the frictions that impede the achievement of the economies of scale in using a single money and the perfect convertibility between domestic and foreign money. Inertial behaviour -hysteresís effects- in substitution processes is originated in this way. It means a severe restriction to economic policies and to monetary system design. This paper shows the existing approaches to currency substitution -conventional, intermediate and not conventíonal-. The last one, which is supported by recent Latin American experience, seems to explain the Argentine case.