In this paper we empirically test whether the Small Business Administration's main guaranteed lending program - the 7(a) program - has a greater impact on economic performance in low income markets than in others. This hypothesis is predicated on our previous research (Craig, Jackson, and...

From 1883 to 1892, the circulation of national bank notes in the United States fell nearly 50 percent. Previous studies have attributed this to supply-side factors that led to a decline in the profitability of note issue during this period. This paper provides an alternative explanation. The...

The guaranteed lending programs of the Small Business Administration (SBA) are large and growing rapidly. The SBA's fiscal year 2008 performance budget calls for $25 billion in guaranteed loans for small businesses - a new record for the agency. Some critics of SBA programs suggest they do not...

This paper studies at the forbearance bet taken by policy makers at the end of the 1970s. We define forbearance as the failure of regulators to enforce book capital standards at the end of 1979. By comparing the cost of prompt regulatory intervention (defined here as closure or reorganization of...

The collapse of the Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund in March 1985 provides a laboratory for examining the financial market's belief in the incentive-conflict model proposed by Kane (1989). Research in this area has yet to examine the stock returns of federally insured institutions during that period...

Recent advances in asset pricing - the reduced form approach to pricing risk debt and derivatives - are used to quantitatively evaluate several proposals for mandatory bank issue of subordinated debt. We find that credit spreads on both fixed and floating rate subordinated debt provide...

The 1980 Monetary Control Act requires the Reserve Banks to recover their costs of providing payments services over time, including a normal return on capital - that is, the same after tax return on equity that a private firm would require. To date, this private sector adjustment factor has been...

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 amended the lending authority of the Federal Home Loan Banks to include advances secured by small enterprise loans of community financial institutions. Three possible reasons for the extension of this selective credit subsidy to community banks and thrifts are...

Deregulation and financial consolidation have led to the development of financial holding companies - allowing commercial banking, insurance, investment banking, and other financial activities to be conducted under the same corporate umbrella - and the Federal Reserve has been named supervisor...