Intended for

Graduate students in economics, academic economists, and practitioners.

Prerequisites

Macroeconomics at the first year PhD or advanced MA level.

Overview

Central banks across the world consider the introduction of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), a central bank liability in digital form that households and firms may use as a payment instrument. The objective of the course is to familiarize participants with macroeconomic perspectives on the potential costs and benefits of CBDC. We start with an overview of central bank activities and motivations before turning to models of how CBDC affects bank intermediation, payments, capital accumulation and other macroeconomic outcomes. We also touch upon political economy and implementation issues.

Topics

Overview.
Macroeconomic implications: Single vs two-tiered monetary architecture, bank disintermediation, competition, seignorage, too big to fail.
The zero lower bound.
Open economy issues.
Macroeconomic irrelevance?
Assessing the policy discussion.
Implementation: Caps, privacy.
Political economy, domestic and international.

Dirk Niepelt is professor of macroeconomics at the University of Bern and leads the CEPR Research and Policy Network on FinTech and Digital Currencies. His research and teaching covers macroeconomics broadly defined and he frequently contributes to the public debate. He is the author of the MIT Press textbook “Macroeconomic Analysis.” Dirk Niepelt received his PhD in economics from MIT. www.niepelt.ch