Fifteen years after the Global Financial Crisis: Recessions and Business Cycles in the History of Economic Thought

What is Money? A synthesis of Victoria Chick’s insights

Repapis Constantinos, Goldsmiths, University of London

Victoria Chick’s conception of money is at the heart of her theory of a financial economy. This contribution attempts to put together a perspective on money that was first developed in Unresolved Questions in Monetary Theory: A Critical Review in 1978 and subsequently developed in her later publications. Chick’s view focuses on the social aspect of money, but also on the association of the definition with the evolution of the financial side of the economy and especially with financial innovations. Arestis and Dow note that Chick’s conception of money means that “general acceptability is context-specific and so must be the definition of money.”(Xiii) This almost points to the suggestion that the definition is constructed not only in its relation to historical setting but also as an interpretative device that helps us understand the financial structure of the economy as it evolves and allows us to pose different policy and theory questions.

Area: Eshet Conference

Keywords: Vic

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