The Origins of Federal Deposit Insurance
Deposit insurance cannot be explained as an emergency measure conceived in haste to resolve an ongoing crisis. The legislation had been debated for years, the banking crisis of 1933 had [...]
The Legacy of Deposit Insurance: The Growth, Spread, and Cost of Insuring Financial Intermediaries
In this paper, I examine how insurance spread from one group of institutions to the next and how the level of insurance was gradually raised. Although deposit insurance has often [...]
Inconsistent Regulators: Evidence From Banking
We find that regulators can implement identical rules inconsistently due to differences in their institutional design and incentives, and this behavior may adversely impact the effectiveness with which regulation is [...]
Regulating Consumer Financial Products: Evidence from Credit Cards
We analyze the effectiveness of consumer financial regulation by considering the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act in the United States. Using a difference-in- differences research design [...]
Policy Intervention in Debt Renegotiation: Evidence from the Home Affordable Modification Program
We evaluate the effects of the 2009 Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) that provided intermediaries with sizeable financial incentives to renegotiate mortgages. HAMP increased intensity of renegotiations and prevented substantial [...]
The Origins of Banking Panics: Models, Facts, and Bank Regulation
Empirical research has demonstrated the importance of such institutional structures as branch bank laws, bank cooperation arrangements, and formal clearing houses, for the probability of panic and for the resolution [...]
The Misuse of the Fed’s Discount Window
I document the erosion of the historic restriction, at least since the 1930s, of Federal Reserve discount window assistance to liquidity-strained banks on the security of sound assets. Section 1 [...]
Do the M&M Propositions Apply to Banks?
In taking up issues of bank capital requirements and the [Modigliani & Miller] M&M Propositions, I am actually returning to a subject treated in a paper on the regulation of [...]
Forcing Firms to Talk: Financial Disclosure Regulation and Externalities
We analyze a model of voluntary disclosure by firms in financial market and the desirability of disclosure regulation. In our model firms choose the precision of their disclosure. Disclosure is [...]
Securities Markets Regulation: Time to Move to a Market-Based Approach
The 1934 Securities and Exchange Act and subsequent amendments required securities exchanges to operate as self-regulatory organizations (SROs) that police themselves under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission. [...]