This study assesses the degree to which the liberalization of geographic banking restrictions has lived up to its promise of enhancing service accessibility in rural areas. The empirical framework is distinguished by a focus on changes in accessibility, as opposed to levels. While previous...

This paper analyzes how risk premia—and other factors affecting the comparative advantages of security-funded versus deposit-funded short-run debt—altered the relative use of debt funded by securities markets since the early-1960s and the relative use of commercial paper during the recent...

Oil price shocks are thought to have played a prominent role in U.S. economic activity. In this paper, we employ Bayesian methods with a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of world economic activity to identify the various sources of oil price shocks and economic fluctuation and to...

The consumption behaviour of U.K., U.S. and Japanese households is examined and compared using a modern Ando-Modigliani style consumption function. The models incorporate income growth expectations, income uncertainty, housing collateral and other credit effects. These models therefore capture...

Remarks Before CERAWeek, Houston, Texas, February 9, 2009. ; "Our senators and congressmen and -women must find a way to give our economic engine an activating short-term jolt without encumbering or disincentivizing the entrepreneurial dynamic that has made for the long-term economic miracle...

Remarks before the U.S.-China Business Council, the Coalition of Service Industries and the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, D.C., May 14, 2007 ; "The service sector may not be as noisy or get as much analytical or political attention as the manufacturing sector, but it has a...

Remarks before the Society of Business Economists, London, England, March 4, 2008. ; "At present, we simply do not have the ability to adequately account for the impact globalization has on the gearing of our domestic economy. Absent that capacity, we cannot, in my opinion, confidently assume...

Remarks before the 125th Annual Convention of the Texas Bankers Association, San Antonio, Texas, May 15, 2009 ; "The most recent reports indicate that job losses may be slowing; trucking companies--a group often looked to as a leading indicator--report a slight pickup in sales; purchasing...

Remarks before the Ninth Annual R.I.S.E. (Redefining Investment Strategy Education) Forum Dayton, Ohio, March 26, 2009 ; "Here is a take-home quote from Charles Mackay's classic tome "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", written in 1841: 'Men think in herds...[and] they go...

"Despite the efforts of the Fed, the hope that comes with a new presidency, and what will hopefully be responsible and carefully calibrated fiscal initiatives for the Congress, I believe we have an epic challenge ahead of us. We are navigating the mother of all financial storms. We will...