Crises and contestations of the money issuance power of banks : the icelandic case

• Main Author: Malherbe, Leo
• Other Authors: Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bordeaux (UB), Université de Bordeaux, Edwin Le Héron, Marc-Alexandre Sénégas
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Central Bank; Money; Banks; Credit; Banque centrale; Monnaie; Banques; Crédit; [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance; Iceland
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03155661; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03155661/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03155661/file/MALHERBE_LEO_2021.pdf

In developed capitalist economies, banks create money through their financing operations. In the wake of the 1929 crisis as well as in the wake of the 2008 crisis, this monetary power has been questioned. This thesis examines the contestation of the monetary issuing power of banks in the Icelandic context following the 2008 crisis. A report commissioned by Prime Minister proposed to reform the monetary system to make money creation an exclusive competence of the Central Bank. The aim of the first chapter is to capture the historical dynamics that generalised this form of money issuance, in order to understand the nature of the contestations it faces. In a second chapter, we will attempt to periodise the evolution of the Icelandic mode of development since independence, in order to perceive how this type of monetary contestation has developed and what its concrete outcomes have been. The third chapter presents two Stock-Flow Consistent models. The first aims at identifying theoretically the conditions for macroeconomic sustainability of an institutional configuration where banks no longer create money. The second is a model applied to Iceland that provides a faithful reproduction of the stylized facts of the period 2004 – 2016. This second model is also used to carry out macroeconomic forecast for the period 2020 – 2021. Dans les systèmes monétaires des économies capitalistes développées, les banques créent la monnaie au travers de leurs opérations de financement. Dans le sillage de la crise de 1929 tout comme dans celui de la crise de 2008, ce pouvoir monétaire s’est vu remis en cause. Cette thèse étudie la contestation du pouvoir d’émission monétaire des banques dans le contexte islandais à la suite de la crise de 2008. Un rapport commandé par le Premier Ministre suggérait de réformer le système monétaire de manière à faire de la création monétaire une prérogative exclusive de la Banque Centrale. Le premier chapitre a pour objectif de saisir la dynamique historique qui a fait émerger ce mode d’émission ...