Central bank digital currencies: The case of universal central bank reserves
Paolo Fegatelli · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · 2019
We analyse several motivations for the introduction of a widely accessible central bank digital currency (CBDC). If a central bank decided to offer a CBDC, its design would have to consider different areas of central bank activity, taking into account multiple policy principles, objectives and constraints. In addition, the introduction of a CBDC on a large scale may have a non-trivial impact on the architecture of the financial system. From this perspective, some common arguments in favour of CBDC may seem simplistic and the field of feasible options may be narrower than often believed. We reconsider Tobin’s idea to establish a system of universal access to central bank reserves, and clarify its feasibility and advantages as an account-based CBDC.