IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/2013-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lessons from the historical use of reserve requirements in the United States to promote bank liquidity

Author

Abstract

Efforts in the United States to promote bank liquidity through reserve requirements, a minimum ratio of liquid assets relative to liabilities, extend at least as far back as the aftermath of the Panic of 1837. These requirements were quite important during the National Banking Era. Nevertheless, suspensions of deposit convertibility and liquidity shortfalls continued to occur during banking panics. Eventually, efforts to ensure that banks remained liquid resulted in a shift away from reserve requirements in favor of a central bank able to add liquidity to the financial system. This paper reviews the issues raised in the historical debates about reserve requirements along with some empirical evidence on banks' holdings of reserves, to provide some insights and lessons that are relevant today. A key lesson is that individual bank liquidity during stress periods is inherently and intricately tied to the liquidity policies of the central bank.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark A. Carlson, 2013. "Lessons from the historical use of reserve requirements in the United States to promote bank liquidity," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2013-11, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2013/201311/201311abs.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2013/201311/201311pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerry A. Odell & Marc D. Weidenmier, 2002. "Real Shock, Monetary Aftershock: The San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907," NBER Working Papers 9176, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Charles W. Calomiris & Gary Gorton, 1991. "The Origins of Banking Panics: Models, Facts, and Bank Regulation," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Markets and Financial Crises, pages 109-174, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. H. G. Moulton, 1918. "Commercial Banking and Capital Formation: I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(5), pages 484-484.
    4. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1991. "Financial Markets and Financial Crises," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number glen91-1.
    5. Rochet, J C., 2008. "Liquidity regulation and the lender of last resort," Financial Stability Review, Banque de France, issue 11, pages 45-52, February.
    6. A. Piatt Andrew, 1908. "Substitutes for Cash in the Panic of 1907," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 22(4), pages 497-516.
    7. Enrico Perotti & Javier Suarez, 2011. "A Pigovian Approach to Liquidity Regulation," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 7(4), pages 3-41, December.
    8. Joshua N. Feinman, 1993. "Reserve requirements: history, current practice, and potential reform," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jun, pages 569-589.
    9. Jin Cao & Gerhard Illing, 2011. "Endogenous Exposure to Systemic Liquidity Risk," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 7(2), pages 173-216, June.
    10. Michael D. Bordo & Hugh Rockoff & Angela Redish, 1993. "A Comparison of the United States and Canadian Banking Systems in the Twentieth Century: Stability vs. Efficiency?," NBER Working Papers 4546, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. H. G. Moulton, 1918. "Commercial Banking and Capital Formation: IV," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(9), pages 849-849.
    12. Odell, Kerry A. & Weidenmier, Marc D., 2004. "Real Shock, Monetary Aftershock: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 1002-1027, December.
    13. H. G. Moulton, 1918. "Commercial Banking and Capital Formation: II," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(6), pages 638-638.
    14. H. G. Moulton, 1918. "Commercial Banking and Capital Formation: III," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(7), pages 705-705.
    15. Tallman, Ellis W. & Moen, Jon R., 2012. "Liquidity creation without a central bank: Clearing house loan certificates in the banking panic of 1907," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 277-291.
    16. Jon R. Moen & Ellis W. Tallman, 1999. "Why didn't the United States establish a central bank until after the panic of 1907?," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 99-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    17. Ratnovski, Lev, 2009. "Bank liquidity regulation and the lender of last resort," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 541-558, October.
    18. Grossman Richard S., 1993. "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Bank Failures under the National Banking System," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 294-320, July.
    19. William L. Silber, 2007. "The Great Financial Crisis of 1914: What Can We Learn from Aldrich–Vreeland Emergency Currency?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 285-289, May.
    20. Charles W. Calomiris, 2009. "Banking Crises and the Rules of the Game," Working Papers 2009/14, Czech National Bank.
    21. Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2009. "Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-2008," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 77-100, Winter.
    22. Charles Calomiris, 2009. "Banking Crises and the Rules of the Game," NBER Working Papers 15403, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Wicker,Elmus, 2000. "Banking Panics of the Gilded Age," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521770231.
    24. John A. James & James McAndrews & David F. Weiman, 2013. "Wall Street and Main Street: the macroeconomic consequences of New York bank suspensions, 1866–1914," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 7(2), pages 99-130, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Liquidity Regulation is Back
      by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets on 2018-04-02 11:29:18

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mark Carlson & Matthew Jaremski, 2023. "Liquidity Requirements, Free‐Riding, and the Implications for Financial Stability Evidence from the Early 1900s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(1), pages 323-341, February.
    2. Calomiris, Charles W. & Carlson, Mark, 2016. "Corporate governance and risk management at unprotected banks: National banks in the 1890s," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 512-532.
    3. Eric Monnet & Miklos Vari, 2023. "A Dilemma between Liquidity Regulation and Monetary Policy: Some History and Theory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(4), pages 915-944, June.
    4. Ben-Gad, Michael & Pearlman, Joseph & Sabuga, Ivy, 2022. "An analysis of monetary and macroprudential policies in a DSGE model with reserve requirements and mortgage lending," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    5. David C. Wheelock, 2015. "Economics and Politics in Selecting Federal Reserve Cities: Why Missouri Has Two Reserve Banks," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 97(4), pages 269-288.
    6. Douglas J. Elliott & Greg Feldberg & Andreas Lehnert, 2013. "The history of cyclical macroprudential policy in the United States," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2013-29, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Joseph Bitar, 2022. "A note on reserve requirements and banks' liquidity," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4837-4852, October.
    8. Asako Chiba, 2022. "Bank capital and liquidity regulation," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 120-138, June.
    9. Mark A. Carlson & David C. Wheelock, 2014. "Navigating constraints: the evolution of Federal Reserve monetary policy, 1935-59," Working Papers 2014-13, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    10. Mark Carlson & David C. Wheelock, 2018. "Did the Founding of the Federal Reserve Affect the Vulnerability of the Interbank System to Contagion Risk?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(8), pages 1711-1750, December.
    11. Glocker, C., 2021. "Reserve requirements and financial stability," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    12. Davis, Douglas D. & Korenok, Oleg & Lightle, John P. & Prescott, Edward S., 2020. "Liquidity requirements and the interbank loan market: An experimental investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 113-126.
    13. Glocker, Christian, 2019. "Do reserve requirements reduce the risk of bank failure?," MPRA Paper 95634, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Christopher Hoag, 2019. "Liquidity and Borrowing from a Lender of Last Resort during the Crisis of 1884," Working Papers 1901, Trinity College, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2019.
    15. Eric Monnet & Miklos Vari, 2019. "Liquidity Ratios as Monetary Policy Tools: Some Historical Lessons for Macroprudential Policy," IMF Working Papers 2019/176, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Aleksandra Maslowska-Jokinen & Anna MatysekJedrych, 2016. "Post-Crisis Regulatory and Supervisory Arrangements – The New ‘Old’ Central Banking," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1632, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    17. Abiloro, T. O & Ilugbami, J. O., 2023. "Regulatory Institutions and National Economic Development in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(5), pages 1552-1575, May.
    18. Christopher Curfman & John Kandrac, 2019. "The costs and benefits of liquidity regulations: Lessons from an idle monetary policy tool," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-041, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Mark A. Carlson & David C. Wheelock, 2016. "Did the Founding of the Federal Reserve Affect the Vulnerability of the Interbank System to Systemic Risk?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-059, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Haelim Anderson & Mark Paddrik & Jessie Jiaxu Wang, 2019. "Bank Networks and Systemic Risk: Evidence from the National Banking Acts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3125-3161, September.
    21. Calomiris, Charles W. & Carlson, Mark, 2017. "Interbank networks in the National Banking Era: Their purpose and their role in the Panic of 1893," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 434-453.
    22. Christopher J Curfman & John Kandrac, 2022. "The Costs and Benefits of Liquidity Regulations: Lessons from an Idle Monetary Policy Tool [Crisis resolution and bank liquidity]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(2), pages 319-353.
    23. Hoag, Christopher, 2018. "Clearinghouse loan certificates as a lender of last resort," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 215-229.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Carlson & David C. Wheelock, 2018. "Did the Founding of the Federal Reserve Affect the Vulnerability of the Interbank System to Contagion Risk?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(8), pages 1711-1750, December.
    2. Mark Carlson & Matthew Jaremski, 2023. "Liquidity Requirements, Free‐Riding, and the Implications for Financial Stability Evidence from the Early 1900s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(1), pages 323-341, February.
    3. Hanson, Samuel G. & Shleifer, Andrei & Stein, Jeremy C. & Vishny, Robert W., 2015. "Banks as patient fixed-income investors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 449-469.
    4. Hoag, Christopher, 2018. "Clearinghouse loan certificates as a lender of last resort," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 215-229.
    5. Jaremski, Matthew & Wheelock, David C., 2020. "The Founding of the Federal Reserve, the Great Depression, and the Evolution of the U.S. Interbank Network," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(1), pages 69-99, March.
    6. Bonfim, D. & Kim, M., 2012. "Liquidity Risk in Banking : Is there Herding?," Other publications TiSEM 6e6df5ea-401b-49a2-b1be-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Christopher Hoag, 2019. "Bank Executive Experience with Clearinghouse Loan Certificates," Working Papers 1903, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    8. Ellis W. Tallman & Jon R. Moen, 2018. "The transmission of the financial crisis in 1907: an empirical investigation," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(2), pages 277-312, May.
    9. Rockoff, Hugh, 2015. "O.M.W. Sprague (the man who “wrote the book” on financial crises) and the founding of the Federal Reserve," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 35-45.
    10. Christopher Hoag, 2019. "Liquidity and Borrowing from a Lender of Last Resort during the Crisis of 1884," Working Papers 1901, Trinity College, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2019.
    11. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1999. "An Engine of Growth: Real Bills and Schumpeterian Banking in Antebellum New York," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 278-302, July.
    12. Calomiris, Charles W. & Carlson, Mark, 2017. "Interbank networks in the National Banking Era: Their purpose and their role in the Panic of 1893," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 434-453.
    13. Carlson, Mark & Macchiavelli, Marco, 2020. "Emergency loans and collateral upgrades: How broker-dealers used Federal Reserve credit during the 2008 financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(3), pages 701-722.
    14. Nilufer Ozdemir, 2020. "Liquidity Risk Management of Affiliated Banks during the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 12(1), pages 31-47, June.
    15. Mark Carlson & Jonathan D. Rose, 2015. "Credit Availability and the Collapse of the Banking Sector in the 1930s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(7), pages 1239-1271, October.
    16. Ozlem Akin & José M Marín & José-Luis Peydró, 2020. "Anticipating the financial crisis: evidence from insider trading in banks," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 35(102), pages 213-267.
    17. Matthew Jaremski & David C. Wheelock, 2022. "Interbank Networks and the Interregional Transmission of Financial Crises: Evidence from the Panic of 1907," Working Papers 2022-020, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised Sep 2023.
    18. Matthew Adeolu Abata & Stephen Oseko Migiro, 2016. "Does Liquidity Management Affect Profitability in Selected Nigerian-Quoted Manufacturing Firms?," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(4), pages 41-51.
    19. Gehrig, Thomas & Fohlin, Caroline & Haas, Marlene, 2015. "Rumors and Runs in Opaque Markets: Evidence from the Panic of 1907," CEPR Discussion Papers 10497, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Claudio Borio, 2011. "Rediscovering the Macroeconomic Roots of Financial Stability Policy: Journey, Challenges, and a Way Forward," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 87-117, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • N21 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • B00 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General - - - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.