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Miron As Well As Rigol Larn Later A Classic

Jeff Miron together with Natalia Rigol guide maintain a provocative working paper, "Bank Failures together with Output During the Great Depression." They accept on i of Ben Bernanke's most famous papers.

Bernanke concluded that the keen depression was severe non because of a lack of money-- medium of telephone commutation -- but because of the credit effects of thence many banking enterprise failures.

You may say, "duh," but it's non thence easy. If banking enterprise Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 fails, what stops y'all from going together with getting a loan from banking enterprise B? Well, if your mightiness to larn a loan is wrapped upwards inward the noesis that employees of banking enterprise Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 guide maintain nigh you. And if, equally a resultant of merely about form of friction, Bank B doesn't hire those people for their knowledge. And if, equally a resultant of merely about other friction, individual can't come upwards purchase the assets of Bank A, including people together with knowledge, together with buy the farm along to operate the bank. In the keen depression, restrictions on branches together with interstate banking did that. The procedure is, fortunately, much swifter straightaway that the assets of a modest local banking enterprise tin hold upwards swiftly bought upwards yesteryear other banks fifty-fifty out of state.

Bernanke's newspaper was - together with is -- enormously influential. It was purpose of a motility to position credit rather than coin at the pump of monetary economic science together with agreement of Fed policy.

But, equally Jeff together with Natalia indicate out, what if the banks brutal because output was going down, non the other agency around? How rigid was Bernanke's actual evidence?

Source: Jeff Miron together with Natalia Rigol

The graph, from the paper, makes the basic point. We tin debate nigh the "bank holiday" but y'all run across that fifty-fifty the other failures came rather belatedly inward the game. It's non at all obvious that banking enterprise failures campaign output declines together with non the other agency around.

And of course, "the economic scheme volition tank if banks larn under" is the mantra that produced the bailouts. Jeff together with Natalia's closing words:
To the extent USA sense during the Great Depression – together with particularly the thought that banking enterprise  failures played a significant, independent purpose during that menses – formed the intellectual foundation for  Treasury together with Fed actions, however, our results propose a hint of caution. If the Great Depression does non constitute testify for Too-Big-to-Fail, together with thence what historical episodes exercise render that evidence? We larn out  that query for merely about other day
There are lots of of import unsettled issues, justifying Jeff together with Natlia's cautious note inward the paper.  How nigh regional testify -- didn't  towns whose banks failed endure to a greater extent than than others, together with had lower loan volumes? (I vaguely recollect seeing that.  I don't pretend to hold upwards an goodness on empirical keen depression work. If individual has the cross-sectional evidence, add together a comment.)

Still, given how the "credit channel" thought underlies most of Fed thinking, fifty-fifty though inequalities yesteryear Definition don't ever bind, together with how deeply the "we can't allow banks neglect or at that spot won't hold upwards whatever novel lending" thought underlies thence much crisis policy, I salute a careful reexamination of fifty-fifty classic "facts."

Update:

On the cross-sectional point, Hanno Lustig institute Hal Cole together with Lee Ohanian's "Reexamining the contributions of coin together with banking shocks to the USA keen depression" together with suggests this graph equally a summary. Not fifty-fifty inward the cross section. Thanks Hanno!

Source Hal Cole together with Lee Ohanian

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