A Modified Baumol Approach-Optimal Withdrawal and Holding of Cash Liquid Assets
<p>Baumol developed an equation for the transaction demand for money. It is affected positively by cost per withdrawal and transaction value, and negatively by the interest loss from holding cash.</p><p>Our objective is to modify the Baumol equation by including another factor. The demand for money is also affected by the customer concern that holding a more available liquid asset encourages more spontaneous purchases with resulting losses in their real value. We develop a new theoretical model by adding to the original Baumol cash demand equation another demand for a deposit which has positive yield and is less liquid. Holding this deposit restrains some of the spontaneous purchases. This modified Baumol equation leads to the following new results: Customers withdraw cash more often; maintain, on average, a smaller cash balance and larger amount of less liquid assets; and reduce their spontaneous and “nonrational” purchases.</p>