Why Are Complementary Currency Systems Difficult to Grasp within Conventional Economics?

Abstract

Complementary currency system (CCS) complements the official currency, with a view to accounting for and regulating exchanges of goods and services in a local space. Despite the topicality and the number of these complementary currencies, the large majority of economists seem to pay marginal attention to them. This article proposes some reasons to explain it. Fundamentally, conventional economics is based on a methodological approach and on theoretical and normative conceptions of money – its essence, status, size, and governance – that prevent it from understanding these monetary schemes. First, the heterogeneity of CCS and their new emergence confront economics to a methodological problem of measure of their impacts. Next, we show that, because of their limited purchasing power in time and in space, economics can’t justify their use in market economy. Last, we will see that the monetary rules of issuing and regulating CSS prevent main contemporary monetary approaches to recognize and legitimate them.

Keywords

• money
• purchasing power
• complementary currency
• convertibility
• impact studies
• sovereignty