We study ex post efficient policy responses to a run on the banking system and the ex ante incentives these responses create. We show that the efficient response to a run is typically not to freeze all remaining deposits, since doing so imposes heavy costs on some individuals. Instead, once a...

Governments typically respond to a run on the banking system by temporarily freezing deposits and by rescheduling payments to depositors. Depositors may even be required to demonstrate an urgent need for funds before being allowed to withdraw. We study ex post efficient policy responses to a...

From the end of the 18th century through the beginning of the 19th century, shortages of small change occurred in the territory that is present-day Argentina. During the colonial period (until 1810), evidence associated with these shortages included the widespread use of informal means of...

The repo market in the United States played a significant role during the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. A large portion of the transactions in this market take the form of a tri-party repo, where a third party (a clearing bank) intermediates between the borrower and the lender. The sudden...

A substantial body of literature has now developed as a result of efforts to identify the fundamental reasons for the fragility of financial intermediaries in the Diamond-Dybvig theory of banking. Many of these articles focus on the interaction between sequential service and uncertainty about...

The Federal Reserve implements its monetary policy objectives by intervening in the interbank market for overnight loans. In particular, it aims to change the supply of reserves available to commercial banks so that the (average) interest rate in this market equals an announced target rate. A...

Payment of interest on banks' reserves has long been an important subject of discussion in monetary policy forums. Recent legislation that allows the U.S. Federal Reserve to pay interest on reserves starting in 2011 has made these issues especially timely. By studying a simple model of the...

Some U.S. banks may be perceived as too big to fail: If any such bank were to get into trouble, the market may expect a government bailout. In general, the possibility of contingent bailouts creates a risk and a size distortion in the decisions of banks. As a result, banks tend to become riskier...

In the last thirty years the U.S. commercial banking industry has experienced significant changes. Characterizing this transformation are long-run trends of the structure, balance sheet, and income statement of the industry. A review of these trends reveals that banks are still very important...

Recent research has argued that the multiple-equilibria explanation of bank runs is inconsistent with a basic stylized fact: bank runs tend to occur under poor economic conditions. This conclusion is not well justified. Reasonable theories that explain bank runs as self-fulfilling events can...