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Eliminating the US Penny: An Updated Economic Study. Jordon Grimm. Introduction. How is Money Made? Why does Currency Denomination Matter? Recent Legislation. Previous Literature. Chen (1976) Removal of demanded units of currency will be inflationary Lombra (2001)
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Eliminating the US Penny:An Updated Economic Study Jordon Grimm
Introduction • How is Money Made? • Why does Currency Denomination Matter? • Recent Legislation
Previous Literature • Chen (1976) • Removal of demanded units of currency will be inflationary • Lombra (2001) • US penny should remain in circulation • Chande & Fisher (2003) • Canadian penny should be eliminated
Plan of Analysis • Two Questions must be answered • 1. Does the penny need to be eliminated? • 2. If so, what happens after it is removed? • If satisfactory answers for both questions are found, then the penny should be taken out of circulation.
Why Remove the Penny? • Inflation Diminishing value • Negative Seigniorage for the US Mint
Seigniorage Table 1 (all monetary figures in $) (Source: US Mint Annual Reports)
Why Remove the Penny? • International Comparison (Source: Wikipedia – Currency)* Eurozone includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain ** 1 and 5 won coins extremely rare; prices are rounded to the nearest 10 won in S. Korea *** 1 cent removed from circulation November 2005
Why Keep the Penny? • Inflationary Effect on Economy • Impact on Charities • Historical Significance • Questions about cash transactions post-elimination
Post-Elimination • Most popular plan: Rounding Scheme • Cash transactions only • After sales tax
Debate over Rounding • Lombra (2001) : Rounding hurts consumers by potentially $600m/yr • Chande & Fisher (2003) : When sales tax is considered, net effect of rounding approaches zero
Case Study • New Zealand • Removed 1- and 2-cent coinage in 1990 • No Evidence of Resulting Inflationary Effects • Many Firms Favored Consumers in Rounding
Conclusion • Sufficient Arguments for Removing the Penny • Rounding Scheme will have Little or No Negative Economic Impact • Therefore, the Penny should be eliminated.