Default Penalty as a Selection Mechanism Among Multiple Equilibria
38 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2011 Last revised: 13 Dec 2012
There are 2 versions of this paper
Default Penalty as a Selection Mechanism Among Multiple Equilibria
Default Penalty as a Selection Mechanism Among Multiple Equilibria
Date Written: December 13, 2012
Abstract
Closed exchange and production-and-exchange economies may have multiple equilibria, a fact that is usually ignored in macroeconomic models. Our basic argument is that default and bankruptcy laws are required to prevent strategic default, and these laws can also serve to provide the conditions for uniqueness. In this paper, we report experimental evidence on the effectiveness of this approach to resolving multiplicity: a society can assign default penalties on fiat money so that the economy selects one of the equilibria. Our data show that the choice of default penalty takes the economy close to the chosen equilibrium. The theory and evidence together reinforce the idea that accounting, bankruptcy and possibly other aspects of social mechanisms play an important role in resolving the otherwise mathematically intractable challenges associated with multiplicity of equilibria in closed economies.
Keywords: Bankruptcy Penalty, Financial Institutions, Fiat Money, Multiple Mquilibria, Experimental Gaming
JEL Classification: C73, C92, D51, E42, G21, G33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation