Jonathan Chiu - Latest
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Central Bank Digital Currencies and Banking: Literature Review and New Questions
We review the nascent but fast-growing literature on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), focusing on their potential impacts on private banks. We evaluate these impacts in three areas of traditional banking: payments, lending and liquidity and maturity transformation. We also take a broader look at CBDCs and highlight two promising directions for future research. -
Grasping De(centralized) Fi(nance) Through the Lens of Economic Theory
We analyze the value proposition and limitations of decentralized finance (DeFi). Based on a distributed ledger and smart contracts, DeFi can guarantee the execution of financial contracts, potentially lowering the costs of intermediation and improving financial inclusion. -
PayTech and the D(ata) N(etwork) A(ctivities) of BigTech Platforms
Why do BigTech platforms introduce payment services? We explore this using a model in which a monopoly platform faces a trade-off between the costs associated with privacy concerns and the revenue from data services. We then analyze the feedback effects between data and payments. -
What Drives Bitcoin Fees? Using Segwit to Assess Bitcoin's Long-Run Sustainability
We explore what drives transaction fees in the Bitcoin system and consider whether Bitcoin can remain tamper proof in the long run. -
Central Bank Digital Currency and Banking: Macroeconomic Benefits of a Cash-Like Design
Should a CBDC be more like cash or bank deposits? An interest-bearing, cash-like CBDC not only makes payments more efficient but also increases total demand. This has positive effects on other transactions, inducing more deposit taking and lending and, thus, bank intermediation. -
Payments on Digital Platforms: Resiliency, Interoperability and Welfare
This paper studies the business model choice between running a cash platform and a token platform, as well as its welfare and policy implications. -
Safe Payments
In a cashless economy, would the private sector invest in the optimal level of safety in a deposit-based payment system? In general, because of externalities, the answer is no. While the private sector could over- or under-invest in safety, the government can use taxes or subsidies to correct private incentives. -
Short-Run Dynamics in a Search-Theoretic Model of Monetary Exchange
We study the short-run effects of monetary policy using a search-theoretic monetary model in which agents are subject to idiosyncratic shocks and aggregate monetary shocks. -
The Economics of Cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin and Beyond
Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, over 2,000 cryptocurrencies have been issued. We evaluate how well a cryptocurrency functions as a payment system.