Economic Uncertainty, Monetary Uncertainty, and the Demand for Money: Evidence From Asian Countries

Abstract

In 1984 Nobel Lauriat Milton Friedman claimed that the decline in velocity of money or an increase in the demand for money was due to volatility of money supply. Another study argued that if monetary volatility could impact the demand for money, so can output volatility (as a measure of economic uncertainty). Both measures of uncertainty can cause people to reallocate their assets between cash and real assets that are less risky. If public become more cautious about the future, they will hold more cash today. However, if they chose to hedge against uncertain prices, they may hold more real assets and less cash. These two hypotheses are tested for Asian countries using bounds testing approach. While both measures are found to have short‐run significant effects on the demand for money in almost all countries, the short‐run effects last into the long run in half of the countries. Furthermore, we find positive and negative effects of both measures which are in line with previous research related to a few developed countries.