Abstract
The demand for money is, in all likelihood, the most closely scrutinized of all possible demands examined by economists. However, the demands on part of private domestic agents to hold the monies of foreign countries has received relatively meager attention in the literature. This is surprising upon recognition of the fact that, from the point of view of the domestic agent, foreign exchange is money, though with slightly different characteristics than domestic monies, and that the tools used to analyze domestic money demands are also appropriate in analyzing the demands for various foreign monies. In investigating the demand on part of private, non-bank firms for the various foreign monies that exist, the dissertation first presents some of the pertinent previous works in money and foreign exchange demand. Next the formal model of the firm as a profit maximizer is presented. Here, with the expressed consideration of the composition of transactions the firm engages in together with the recognition of proportional rate of change of the various exchange rates as marginal costs of holding the corresponding foreign monies, it is seen that the model of the firm's demand for foreign exchange is merely a special case of the general model of the firm's demand for money. The comparative static properties of the jointly derived foreign exchange demand functions are then examined in a three step process. The stock outlay constant demands are considered first, followed by the output constant, and lastly the total or output variable relationships. Finally, some of the hypotheses arising from the analysis of the theoretical model, along with some hypotheses that are not a direct result of the model, are empirically tested, with mixed results.
Saurman, David Scott (1979). A transactions demand for foreign exchange. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -54994.