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New evidence on the Fed's productivity in providing payments services

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Author Info
R. Alton Gilbert
David C. Wheelock
Paul W. Wilson

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Abstract

As the dominant provider of payments services, the efficiency with which the Federal Reserve provides such services in an important public policy issue. This paper examines the productivity of Federal Reserve check-processing offices during 1980-1999 using non-parametric estimation methods and newly developed methods for non-parametric inference and hypothesis testing. The results support prior studies that found little initial improvement in the Fed's efficiency with the imposition of pricing for Federal Reserve services in 1982. However, we find that median productivity improved substantially during the 1990s, and the dispersion across Fed offices declined.>

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its series Working Papers with number 2002-020.

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Date of creation: 2002
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2002-020

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Related research
Keywords: Productivity ; Payment systems ; Check collection systems;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Léopold Simar, Paul W. Wilson, 2000. "A general methodology for bootstrapping in non-parametric frontier models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 779-802, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Humphrey, David Burras, 1981. "Economies to scale in federal reserve check processing operations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 155-173, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2002. "Non-parametric tests of returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 115-132, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Simar, L. & Wilson, P.W., 1999. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: the State of the Art," Papers 9904, Catholique de Louvain - Institut de statistique.
  5. Jondrow, James & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Materov, Ivan S. & Schmidt, Peter, 1982. "On the estimation of technical inefficiency in the stochastic frontier production function model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 233-238, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 1997. "New evidence on returns to scale and product mix among U.S. commercial banks," Working Papers 1997-003, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Bauer, Paul W. & Hancock, Diana, 1993. "The efficiency of the Federal Reserve in providing check processing services," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 287-311, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-44, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Kneip, Alois & Park, Byeong U. & Simar, L opold, 1998. "A Note On The Convergence Of Nonparametric Dea Estimators For Production Efficiency Scores," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(06), pages 783-793, December. [Downloadable!]
  11. McAllister, Patrick H. & McManus, Douglas, 1993. "Resolving the scale efficiency puzzle in banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 389-405, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Park, B.U. & Simar, L. & Weiner, Ch., 2000. "The Fdh Estimator For Productivity Efficiency Scores," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(06), pages 855-877, December. [Downloadable!]
  13. Simar, L. & Wilson, P.W., 2000. "Testing Restrictions in Nonparametric Efficiency Models," Papers 0013, Catholique de Louvain - Institut de statistique.
  14. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-74, October.
  15. Paul W. Bauer & Gary D. Ferrier, 1996. "Scale economies, cost efficiencies, and technological change in Federal Reserve payments processing," Proceedings, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), pages 1004-1044.
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  16. Paul W. Wilson & Kathleen Carey, 2004. "Nonparametric analysis of returns to scale in the US hospital industry," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 505-524. [Downloadable!]
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David Humphrey & Magnus Willesson & Ted Lindblomand & Goran Bergendahl, 2003. "What does it Cost to Make a Payment?," Review of Network Economics, Concept Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 159-174, June. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michelle L. Barnes & Jose Lopez, 2005. "Alternative measures of the Federal Reserve banks' cost of equity capital," Working Paper Series 2005-06, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. David C. Wheelock & Paul Wilson, 2007. "Non-parametric, unconditional quantile estimation for efficiency analysis with an application to Federal Reserve check processing operations," Working Papers 2005-027, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Loretta J. Mester, 2003. "Applying efficiency measurement techniques to central banks," Working Papers 03-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  5. Robert DeYoung & William Hunter & Gregory Udell, 2004. "The Past, Present, and Probable Future for Community Banks," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 85-133, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Edward J. Green & Jose A. Lopez & Zhenyu Wang, 2003. "Formulating the imputed cost of equity capital for priced services at Federal Reserve banks," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Sep, pages 55-81. [Downloadable!]
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