Demand of Money

The demand for money refers to the total amount of wealth held by the household and companies. The demand for money is affected by several factors such as income levels, interest rates, price levels (inflation), and uncertainty.

The impact of these factors on the demand for money is explained in terms of the three primary reasons to hold money. The three reasons are:

Transactions: This is the money needed for fulfilling transactions. As the total number and size of transactions increases in an economy, the transaction demand for money also increases.

Precautionary: This is the money needed for uncertain future needs, for example, unexpected medical expenses. The precautionary demand for money increases as the size of economy increases.

Speculative: People also hold money for speculative purposes so that they can take advantage of investment opportunities in the future. If the current returns on financial products are high, people will rather invest than hold money with a speculative motive. We can say that the demand for money for speculative motive increases with the increase in perceived risk in other financial instruments.

There is an inverse relationship between the short-term interest rates and the demand for money that households and firms want to hold. If the interest rates are low, the demand for money is high and if the interest rates are high, the demand for money is low. This is because as interest rates increase, the opportunity cost of holding money increases, and people will be better off by investing in other financial instruments than holding money.

Supply of Money

The supply of money in an economy is controlled by its central bank, for example, Fed in the US. The Fed may change the money supply by using open market operations or by changing reserve requirements.