A normalized quadratic input distance function is proposed with which to estimate technical efficiency on commercial banks regulated by the Federal Reserve System. The study period covers 1990 to 2000 using individual bank information from the Call and Banking Holding Company Database. A...

May 30, 2012. "Demographics, Redistribution, and Optimal Inflation," with Carlos Garriga and Christopher J. Waller. Presented by Christopher Waller at the 2012 BOJ-IMES Conference Demographic Changes and Macroeconomic Performance.

April 16, 2012. "Hawks, Doves, Bubbles, and Inflation Targets" Presented at the George S. Eccles Distinguished Lecture, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University.

January 4, 2013. Presentation. "The Global Battle Over Central Bank Independence." NABE Panel Discussion: "Federal Reserve Independence in the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis: Should We Be Worried?" AEA/ASSA Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.

Global Interdependence Center, Philadelphia, PA. June 30, 2009

Delivered at the Swedbank Economic Outlook Seminar, Stockholm, Sweden. May 27, 2010

Numerous studies have found that banks exhaust scale economies at low levels of output, but most are based on the estimation of parametric cost functions which misrepresent bank cost. Here we avoid specification error by using nonparametric kernal regression techniques. We modify measures of...

Presentation at the Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum, Philadelphia - Nov. 30, 2001

We review the responses of the Federal Reserve to financial crises over the past 100 years. The authors of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 created an institution that they hoped would prevent banking panics from occurring. When this original framework did not prevent the banking panics of the...