Pandemic Recession and Helicopter Money: Venice, 1629--1631

• Tác giả: Charles Goodhart, Donato Masciandaro, Stefano Ugolini
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 846.3 French letters
• Thông tin xuất bản: 2022
• Bộ sưu tập: Metadata
• ID: 168602

Tóm tắt

We analyse the money-financed fiscal stimulus implemented in Venice during the famine and plague of 1629--31, which was equivalent to a 'net-worth helicopter money' strategy -- a monetary expansion generating losses to the issuer. We argue that the strategy aimed at reconciling the need to subsidize inhabitants suffering from containment policies with the desire to prevent an increase in long-term government debt, but it generated much monetary instability and had to be quickly reversed. This episode highlights the redistributive implications of the design of macroeconomic policies and the role of political economy factors in determining such designs.