How Robust are Money Demand Estimations? | A Meta-Analytic Summary of Findings about Income Elasticities

In this paper we conduct a meta-analysis of empirical money demand studies involving almost 500 individual money demand estimations. We analyze whether the wide variety of results can be explained by characteristics of the studies or the imprecision of individual estimates. We find that estimates for the income elasticity of money are systematically related to various study characteristics (e.g., broadness of the monetary aggregate, inclusion of financial innovation and wealth). Nevertheless, a substantial part of the variability remains unexplained. (JEL E41, E52