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About the Talk

Can cryptocurrencies be useful for society and the economy? How do they interact with standard money? What is the role of stablecoins in this context? To address these questions, I will draw on classical theories of money (Wicksell, Samuelson, Kiyotaki Wright, Bewley, etc) as well as recent papers on cryptocurrencies and descriptive information blockchain and tokens. Relying on this framework, I discuss risks than can arise with these tokens, in particular bubble crashes and runs. I will also discuss the interaction between cryptocurrencies and stablecoins on the one hand and monetary policy on the other hand. In particular I will discuss the extent to which cryptocurrencies and stablecoins can emerge as a response to monetary policies dysfunctionalities, and also the feedback effect they can have on monetary policy.

About the Speaker

Bruno Biais holds a PhD in finance from HEC, received the Paris Bourse dissertation award, the NYSE Award for the best paper on equity trading, and the CNRS bronze medal. He taught at Toulouse, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, LSE, and is now Professor of Finance at HEC. His research on finance, contract theory, experimental economics and blockchains is published in Econometrica, JPE, AER, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Finance, RFS and JFE. He was editor of the Review of Economic Studies and of the Journal of Finance. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the Finance Theory group. Bruno Biais has been scientific adviser to the NYSE, Euronext, European Central Bank and Bank of England, and is currently member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board.