For citation:
Oskembekov, I. (2026). Qualitative Heterogeneity of Money and Its Equivalence to Commodities: A Problem Statement. AlterEconomics, 23(2), 392–409. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2026.23-2.8
Abstract:
In contemporary macroeconomic theory, money is typically treated as a homogeneous aggregate, while its equivalence to commodities is regarded either as an intrinsic property or as an institutionally established characteristic. Although this approach facilitates aggregate-level analysis of monetary circulation, it largely neglects differences in the economic status of monetary sums arising from their participation in commodity exchange. Consequently, the structural relationship between monetary and commodity masses remains insufficiently formalized, particularly in the context of credit expansion, financial digitalization, and the proliferation of non-traditional forms of money. This paper develops a structural approach to the analysis of the money supply based on the interpretation of money–commodity equivalence as a processual economic state that emerges and disappears depending on whether a monetary sum participates in expressing realized exchange value. The methodological framework is grounded in a processual conception of exchange, which views both commodities and money as economic states rather than static entities. The study substantiates the qualitative heterogeneity of the money supply and introduces a distinction between money with realized equivalence and money with potential equivalence. On this basis, it formalizes the structural correspondence between commodity and monetary masses and proposes an indicator of the commodity content of money, defined as the share of monetary sums that directly represent realized commodity value. Inflation and deflation are interpreted as price-adjustment mechanisms that compensate for structural imbalances between monetary and commodity masses. Future research should focus on the empirical operationalization of the proposed indicator, its application to the analysis of monetary policy and financial digitalization, and its incorporation into formal models of monetary circulation and economic reproduction.
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