Does Commodity Money Eliminate the Indeterminacy of Equilibria?
Previous studies have shown that a random-matching model with divisible at
money and without constraint on agents' money inventories possesses a continuum
of stationary single-price equilibria. Wallace [10] conjectures that the indeterminacy
can be eliminated by the use of commodity money. Instead, I nd that in a similar
random-matching model with dividend-yielding commodity money, a continuum of
stationary single-price equilibria exists when the utility of dividend is not too high.
This result casts doubt on the conventional belief that the indeterminacy of monetary
equilibrium is caused only by the nominal nature of money.
