THE DEMAND FOR VERY LIQUID ASSETS IN AUSTRALIA.

In this paper we present some empirical equations explaining the Australian nonbank public's demand for very liquid assets. Very liquid assets are financial assets which can be converted into cash on demand. Four assets fell into this category in the period we are studying: notes and coin, current deposits, savings deposits, and loans to the authorised dealers in the Short-term money market. We also present an equation explaining the public's demand for fixed deposits because this variable plays an important role in the equations for very liquid assets. This group of financial assets merits special attention because economists usually attribute a crucial role in the determination of economic activity to these assets; the study embraces all the assets included in the Reserve Bank's definition of "money". The assets are described in the following section, and in subsequent sections we discuss the specification of the equations, the estimation procedure used, and the empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]