This paper provides the first comprehensive econometric analysis of the causes of bank distress during the Depression …. We assemble bank-level data for virtually all Fed member banks, and combine those data with county-level, state … bank failure. We construct a model of bank survival duration using these fundamental determinants of bank failure as …

of creating an oligopoly. We assembled a data set that compares bank failures, lending rates, interest paid on deposits …

An examination of U.S. banking history shows that economically efficient private bank money requires that information …-revealing securities markets for bank liabilities be closed. That is, banks are optimally opaque, which is why they are regulated and … examined. I show this by examining the transition from private bank notes, the predominant form of money before the U.S. Civil …

. Second, did diffuse ownership systematically alter bank risk taking? It did. Banks with less concentrated ownership followed …