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Summary ECS3701 Monetary Economics summarised notes. Pass guaranteed.
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
ECS3701 Monetary Economics summarised notes. Pass guaranteed.
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2023Monetary Economics - 2023
ECS3701 Notes
,CHAPTER 1 - WHY STUDY MONEY, BANKING AND FINANCIAL MARKETS.
WHY STUDY FINANCIAL MARKETS
❖ Financial markets such as bond and stock markets are crucial to promoting greater economic
efficiency by channeling funds from people who do not have a proper use to people who do.
❖ Well-functioning financial markets are a key to producing high economic growth and have direct
effects on personal wealth, behavior on business consumers and the cyclical performance of the
economy.
The Bond Market and Interest Rates
❖ A security, also called a financial instrument is a claim on the issuer’s future income or assets.
❖ The bond market is important because it enables corporations and governments to borrow to finance
their activities and because it is where interest rates are determined.
❖ A bond is a debt that promises to make payments periodically for a specific period.
❖ An interest rate is the cost of borrowing or the price paid for the rental of funds.
Interest rates are important because:
❖ Higher rates could deter one from borrowing e.g., to buy a house or car.
❖ Conversely, higher rates could encourage one to save money as cost of borrowing is higher.
❖ They impact the general health of the economy as they affect consumers and business’s willingness
to spend, save or make investment decisions.
The Stock Market
❖ A common stock represents a share of ownership in a corporation.
❖ It is a security claim on the earnings and assets of the corporation.
❖ Issuing stock and selling it to the public is a way for corporations to raise funds to finance their
activities.
❖ The market is a place where people can get rich or poor quickly.
❖ The stock market is important as the price of the shares affects the amount of funds that can be
raised be selling newly issued stock to finance spending, a higher price means more funds.
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,WHY STUDY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND BANKING?
❖ Banks and other financial institutions are what makes financial markets work, without them,
financial markets would not be able to move funds from people who save to people have productive
investment opportunities.
Structure of the Financial System
❖ The financial system is complex comprising of many different institutions such as banks, insurance
companies, mutual funds, finance companies and investment banks.
❖ Financial intermediaries borrow money from people who have saved and in turn make loans to
others.
❖ The cost being the interest rate.
Financial Crisis
❖ A financial crisis is a major disruption in the financial markets that are characterized by sharp
declines in assets prices and the failures of many financial and nonfinancial firms.
❖ Defaults in subprime residential mortgages led to major losses in the financial institutions producing
two of the largest banks to fails, Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers causing the worst crises since
the financial depression, starting in August 2007.
Banks and Other Financial Institutions
❖ Banks are financial institutions that accept deposits and make loans.
❖ These include commercial banks, savings and loans associations, mutual savings banks & credit
unions.
❖ Banks are the most interacted financial intermediaries but other financial institutions such as
insurance companies, finance companies, pension funds, mutual funds have been growing at the
expense of banks.
Financial Innovation
❖ Financial Innovation that is the development of new financial products and services is important
since it makes the financial system more efficient.
❖ It can also have a ‘dark side’ and lead to a financial crisis.
❖ Financial innovation shows us how creative thinking can lead to profits or result in financial disasters.
❖ It provides clues how the financial system may change over time.
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, WHY STUDY MONEY AND MONETARY POLICY?
❖ Money or money supply is defined as anything that is generally accepted in payment for goods or
services or in the repayment of debts.
❖ Money is linked to changes in economic variables that affect all of us and are important to the health
of the economy.
Money and Business Cycles
❖ Why do economies undergo such pronounced fluctuations?
❖ Evidence shows money plays an important role in generating business cycles, the upward and
downward movement of aggregate output (the total production of goods and services), produced
in the economy.
❖ When output is raising unemployment decreases, when output is falling, unemployment increases.
❖ Recessions are periods of declining aggregate output we see that the rate of money growth has
declined before almost every recession indicating that changes in money might be the driving force
behind business cycle fluctuations but not every decline in money growth is followed by a recession.
Money and Inflation
❖ The average price of goods and services in an economy is called the aggregate price level, or simply
the price level.
❖ Inflation is a continual increase in the price level and effect individuals, businesses and government.
❖ What explains inflation? Data seems to indicate that a continuing increase in the money supply may
be an important factor of increasing inflation.
❖ Evidence has found that the countries with the highest average inflation rate also have the highest
interest rates.
Money and Interest Rates
❖ Money also plays an important role in interest rate fluctuations. We analyze the relationship between
money and interest rates in Chapter 5.
Conduct of Monetary Policy.
❖ The conduct of monetary policy is the management of money and interest rates.
❖ The central bank is responsible for a nation’s monetary policy.
❖ In SA we have the South African Reserve Bank.
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