Property, Interest, and Money: Is Heinsohn and Steiger's Property Premium a Determinant of Interest? (opens in new tab)

Heinsohn and Steiger's "Eigentum, Zins und Geld" (1996) proposes the property premium as the foundational determinant of interest, replacing time preference. This paper examines whether the replacement succeeds. It does not. The two arguments against time preference, the savings-inelasticity claim after Hahn and the portfolio-shift claim after Keynes, both fail on standard microeconomic grounds. With time preference intact, the property premium ...