[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/10361.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fighting the Last War: Economists on the Lender of Last Resort

Author

Listed:
  • Grossman, Richard
  • Rockoff, Hugh T
Abstract
In this paper we trace the evolution of the lender of last resort doctrine?and its implementation?from the nineteenth century through the panic of 2008. We find that typically the most influential economists ?fight the last war?: formulating policy guidelines that would have dealt effectively with the last crisis or in some cases the last two or three. This applies even to the still supreme voice among lender-of-last-resort theorists, Walter Bagehot, who wrestled with the how to deal with the financial crises that hit Britain between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the panic of 1866. Fighting the last war may leave economists unprepared for meeting effectively the challenge of the next war.

Suggested Citation

  • Grossman, Richard & Rockoff, Hugh T, 2015. "Fighting the Last War: Economists on the Lender of Last Resort," CEPR Discussion Papers 10361, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10361
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP10361
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goodhart, Charles A.E. & Huang, Haizhou, 2005. "The lender of last resort," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1059-1082, May.
    2. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1991. "Financial Markets and Financial Crises," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number glen91-1.
    3. Jerome de Boyer des Roches & Ricardo Solis Rosales, 2011. "R.G. Hawtrey on the national and international lender of last resort," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 175-202.
    4. Christina D. Romer, 1990. "The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 597-624.
    5. Moritz Schularick & Alan M. Taylor, 2012. "Credit Booms Gone Bust: Monetary Policy, Leverage Cycles, and Financial Crises, 1870-2008," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 1029-1061, April.
    6. Broz, J. Lawrence & Grossman, Richard S., 2004. "Paying for privilege: the political economy of Bank of England charters, 1694-1844," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 48-72, January.
    7. O. M. W. Sprague, 1909. "The Proposal for a Central Bank in the United States: A Critical View," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 23(3), pages 363-415.
    8. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2014. "This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(2), pages 215-268, November.
    9. Lucia, Joseph L., 1985. "The failure of the bank of United States: A reappraisal," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 402-416, October.
    10. Marc Flandreau, 1997. "Central Bank Cooperation in Historical Perspective: A Sceptical View," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 50(4), pages 735-763, November.
    11. Gorton, Gary B., 2012. "Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don't See Them Coming," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199922901.
    12. Marvin Goodfriend & Robert G. King, 1988. "Financial deregulation, monetary policy, and central banking," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 74(May), pages 3-22.
    13. Huberto M. Ennis & Todd Keister, 2009. "Bank Runs and Institutions: The Perils of Intervention," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1588-1607, September.
    14. Tamaki,Norio, 1995. "Japanese Banking," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521496766, September.
    15. Reinhart, Carmen & Rogoff, Kenneth, 2009. "This Time It’s Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly-Preface," MPRA Paper 17451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Douglas W. Diamond & Philip H. Dybvig, 2000. "Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 24(Win), pages 14-23.
    17. Charles W. Calomiris & Gary Gorton, 1991. "The Origins of Banking Panics: Models, Facts, and Bank Regulation," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Markets and Financial Crises, pages 109-174, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Varieties of Crises and Their Dates," Introductory Chapters, in: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press.
    19. Richard S. Grossman & Masami Imai, 2013. "Contingent capital and bank risk-taking among British banks before the First World War," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(1), pages 132-155, February.
    20. Reinhart, Carmen & Rogoff, Kenneth, 2009. "This Time It’s Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly-Chapter 1," MPRA Paper 17452, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Nelson, Edward, 2013. "Friedman's monetary economics in practice," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 59-83.
    22. Allan H. Meltzer, 2013. "What's Wrong with the Fed? What Would Restore Independence?," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 33(3), pages 401-416, Fall.
    23. William R. Cline & Joseph E. Gagnon, 2013. "Lehman Died, Bagehot Lives: Why Did the Fed and Treasury Let a Major Wall Street Bank Fail?," Policy Briefs PB13-21, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    24. Marvin Goodfriend, 2012. "The Elusive Promise of Independent Central Banking," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 30, pages 39-54, November.
    25. Timberlake, Richard H, Jr, 1984. "The Central Banking Role of Clearinghouse Associations," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, February.
    26. Vincent Bignon & Marc Flandreau & Stefano Ugolini, 2009. "Bagehot for beginners: The making of lending of last resort operations in the mid-19th century," Working Paper 2009/22, Norges Bank.
    27. Philip Cagan, 1965. "Determinants and Effects of Changes in the Stock of Money, 1875–1960," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number caga65-1.
    28. Milton Friedman & Anna J. Schwartz, 1987. "Has Government Any Role in Money?," NBER Chapters, in: Money in Historical Perspective, pages 289-314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Ben S. Bernanke, 2015. "The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9928-2.
    30. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/648 is not listed on IDEAS
    31. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/648 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. repec:bla:econom:v:39:y:1972:i:153:p:47-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Michael D. Bordo, 1990. "The lender of last resort : alternative views and historical experience," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 76(Jan), pages 18-29.
    34. Vincent Bignon & Marc Flandreau & Stefano Ugolini, 2012. "Bagehot for beginners: the making of lender‐of‐last‐resort operations in the mid‐nineteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(2), pages 580-608, May.
    35. Trescott, Paul B, 1992. "The Failure of the Bank of the United States, 1930: A Rejoinder," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 24(3), pages 384-399, August.
    36. Robert L. Hetzel, 1987. "Henry Thornton: seminal monetary theorist and father of the modern central bank," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 73(Jul), pages 3-16.
    37. Allan H Meltzer, 2013. "What's Wrong With the Federal Reserve: What Would Restore Independence?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 96-103, April.
    38. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1795 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Geoffrey Wood, 2000. "The Lender of Last Resort Reconsidered," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 18(2), pages 203-227, December.
    40. John A. James & James McAndrews & David F. Weiman, 2013. "Wall Street and Main Street: the macroeconomic consequences of New York bank suspensions, 1866–1914," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 7(2), pages 99-130, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Green, Christopher & Bai, Ye & Murinde, Victor & Ngoka, Kethi & Maana, Isaya & Tiriongo, Samuel, 2016. "Overnight interbank markets and the determination of the interbank rate: A selective survey," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 149-161.
    2. Masami Imai & Tetsuji Okazaki & Michiru Sawada, 2022. "The effects of lender of last resort on financial intermediation during the great depression in Japan [Ginko Hatan gaoyobosu Densenkoka no Bunseki (The analyses of the effect of contagion caused by," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(3), pages 448-478.
    3. Mike Anson & David Bholat & Miao Kang & Ryland Thomas, 2017. "The Bank of England as Lender of Last Resort: New historical evidence from daily transactional data," Working Papers 0117, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    4. Chwieroth, Jeffrey M. & Walter, Andrew, 2022. "Neoliberalism and banking crisis bailouts: distant enemies or warring neighbors?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111871, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Laurent Le Maux, 2021. "Bagehot for Central Bankers," Working Papers Series inetwp147, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    6. Allen, Kyle D. & Hein, Scott E. & Whitledge, Matthew D., 2017. "The evolution of the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility and FDIC-insured bank utilization," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 154-166.
    7. Schuler, Kurt, 2020. "The Financial Firefighter’s Manual," Studies in Applied Economics 169, The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.
    8. Stracca, Livio & Scheubel, Beatrice, 2016. "What do we know about the global financial safety net? Rationale, data and possible evolution," Occasional Paper Series 177, European Central Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Calomiris, Charles W. & Flandreau, Marc & Laeven, Luc, 2016. "Political foundations of the lender of last resort: A global historical narrative," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    2. Stijn Claessens & M. Ayhan Kose, 2013. "Financial Crises: Explanations, Types and Implications," CAMA Working Papers 2013-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    3. Grodecka-Messi, Anna & Kenny, Seán & Ögren, Anders, 2021. "Predictors of bank distress: The 1907 crisis in Sweden," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Claudio Borio, 2011. "Rediscovering the Macroeconomic Roots of Financial Stability Policy: Journey, Challenges, and a Way Forward," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 87-117, December.
    5. van Eeghen, Piet-Hein, 2021. "Funding money-creating banks: Cash funding, balance sheet funding and the moral hazard of currency elasticity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Matthew Jaremski & David C. Wheelock, 2020. "Banking on the Boom, Tripped by the Bust: Banks and the World War I Agricultural Price Shock," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(7), pages 1719-1754, October.
    7. Franklin Allen & Xian Gu, 2018. "The Interplay between Regulations and Financial Stability," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 53(2), pages 233-248, June.
    8. Daniel R. Sanches, 2014. "Banking panics and protracted recessions," Working Papers 14-37, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    9. Carmen M. Reinhart, 2022. "From Health Crisis to Financial Distress," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 70(1), pages 4-31, March.
    10. Ebrahimi Kahou, Mahdi & Lehar, Alfred, 2017. "Macroprudential policy: A review," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 92-105.
    11. Albertazzi, Ugo & Barbiero, Francesca & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Popov, Alexander & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2020. "Monetary policy and bank stability: the analytical toolbox reviewed," Working Paper Series 2377, European Central Bank.
    12. Wee Chian Koh & M. Ayhan Kose & Peter S. Nagle & Franziska L. Ohnsorge & Naotaka Sugawara, 2020. "Debt and Financial Crises," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2001, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    13. Kräussl, Roman & Lehnert, Thorsten & Stefanova, Denitsa, 2016. "The European sovereign debt crisis: What have we learned?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 363-373.
    14. Alan Moreira & Alexi Savov, 2014. "The Macroeconomics of Shadow Banking," NBER Working Papers 20335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Òscar Jordà & Moritz Schularick & Alan M. Taylor, 2011. "When credit bites back: leverage, business cycles, and crises," Working Paper Series 2011-27, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    16. Michael D. Bordo, 2017. "An Historical Perspective on the Quest for Financial Stability and the Monetary Policy Regime," Economics Working Papers 17108, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
    17. Matsuoka, Tarishi, 2012. "Imperfect interbank markets and the lender of last resort," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 1673-1687.
    18. Hanes, Christopher & Rhode, Paul W., 2013. "Harvests and Financial Crises in Gold Standard America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 201-246, March.
    19. Michael C. Burda, 2013. "How to Avoid Contagion and Spillover Effects in the Euro Zone?," Chapters, in: Andreas Dombret & Otto Lucius (ed.), Stability of the Financial System, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Eric M. Leeper & James M. Nason, 2014. "Bringing Financial Stability into Monetary Policy," CAMA Working Papers 2014-72, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bagehot; Bank of england; Central banks; Lender of last resort; Subprime crisis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10361. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.