The factors are: - real income, the price level, interest rates, and the brokerage
cost of shifting between money and bonds. Increases in real income increase
money demand less than proportionately, since the model predicts scale
economies in transactions demand. Increases in prices increase money
demand proportionately, since the demand is for real balances. The quantity of
money demanded varies inversely with interest rates, since interest is the
opportunity cost of holding money. The brokerage fee is the cost of converting
other assets (bonds) into money. An increase in this cost increases money
demand.
[5 marks]
In one of the earliest studies on the link between interest rates and money
demand using the United States data, James Tobin concluded that the demand
for money is sensitive to interest rates. The Baumol-Tobin analysis suggests
that the transactions component of the demand for money is negatively related
to the level of interest rates
Comparing Tobin's model of the speculative demand for money with the
Keynesian speculative demand, the Tobin model implies individuals diversify
their asset holdings, while the Keynesian model predicts that individuals hold
only money or only bonds.
Tobin argued that people care about both the return and the risk of the assets
they hold. Since bonds are generally considered to be riskier than money,
people will still choose to hold money for diversification purposes.