A binding interest rate cap on household savings is a common form of financial repression in developing economies and typically benefits banks. Using proprietary data from a leading Chinese FinTech company, we study Fintech's role in ending financial repression in China through the introduction...

This paper estimates statistical cost. and revenue curves for a cross-section of banks in the years 1962-75. The primary data cover reported accounting or book rates of return. Approximations are also made to estimate economic or total returns. These approximations take into account changes in...

We show that maturity transformation does not expose banks to significant interest rate risk--it actually hedges banks' interest rate risk. We argue that this is driven by banks' deposit franchise. Banks incur large operating costs to maintain their deposit franchise, and in return get...

Interest paid by U.S. state and local bonds is tax-exempt, making these bonds attractive to investors - though a tax rule limits arbitrage opportunities by restricting associated interest expense deductions. Prior to 1986, U.S. banks were not subject to the interest deduction limitation, making...

This paper explores several issues concerning a possible zero lower bound (ZLB) including its theoretical rationale; the magnitude of effects of low sustained inflation on real interest rates; the validity of analyzing monetary policy in models with no monetary variables; and the dynamic...