Economic Uncertainty, Monetary Uncertainty, and the Demand for Money in Africa

Abstract

Due to economic and monetary uncertainty individuals are expected to allocate their portfolio towards holding money and alternative forms of assets. Following the literature on money demand, we test the impact of economic and monetary uncertainty on the demand for money in 21 African nations. By relying upon quarterly data, GARCH-based measures of uncertainty, and bounds testing approach we find that the impact of both measures are mostly transitory in many of the African countries and do not last into long run. Furthermore, by including the two uncertainty measures we found that the demand for money in every African nation is stable.