C.3 What is Money? Flashcards
Currency
Paper money and coins
Wealth
The total collection of pieces of property that serve to store value
Income
A flow of earnings per unit of time
Money
It is a stock: a certain amount at a given time.
Refers to anything generally accepted in payment for goods/services or in the repayment of debts
Primary functions of money
1) Medium of exchange
2) A unit of account
3) As a store of value
Medium of exchange
Money in the form of currency or cheques
Transaction cost
Time spent trying to exchange goods or services
Double coincidence of wants
In barter economies, double coincidence of wants is trying to find someone who has a good/service they want and also wants the good/service they have to offer
Criteria for a commodity to function as money
1) Easily standardized
2) Widely accepted
3) Divisible
4) Easy to carry
5) Cannot deteriorate quickly
Unit of account
Measure value in an economy
How does unit of account reduce transaction costs
Reduces the number of prices to be considered by valuing everything in terms of a single measurement
Store of value
Save purchasing power from the time income is received to the time it is spent
Examples of store of value
Money, but also any asset like stocks, bonds, land, art, jewellery
Without unit of account, what is the formula for determining how many prices you’d need when we have N goods
[N(N-1)]/2
Liquidity
The relative speed and ease an asset can be converted into a medium of exchange