IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mcb/jmoncb/v31y1999i3p624-59.html

Some searches may not work properly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

   My bibliography  Save this article

Private Money Creation and the Suffolk Banking System

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Bruce D
  • Weber, Warren E

Abstract

Many have argued that private provision of close currency substitutes may lead to large scale indeterminacies and excessive economic fluctuations. Others argue that money creation can be "left to the market." Adherents of this viewpoint often point to the Suffolk Banking System as an example of a well-functioning system of private money creation. We provide a framework for analyzing these notions, and for modeling the monetary consequences of the Suffolk System. This system resolves some, but not all indeterminacies. It also can raise steady state welfare, but may substantially enhance volatility. The model's predictions are consistent with historical evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Bruce D & Weber, Warren E, 1999. "Private Money Creation and the Suffolk Banking System," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(3), pages 624-659, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcb:jmoncb:v:31:y:1999:i:3:p:624-59
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur J. Rolnick & Warren E. Weber, 1988. "Explaining the demand for free bank notes," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 12(Spr), pages 21-35.
    2. Azariadis, Costas & Smith, Bruce, 1998. "Financial Intermediation and Regime Switching in Business Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 516-536, June.
    3. Townsend, Robert M, 1987. "Economic Organization with Limited Communication," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 954-971, December.
    4. 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.
    5. Calomiris, Charles W & Kahn, Charles M, 1996. "The Efficiency of Self-Regulated Payments Systems: Learning from the Suffolk System," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(4), pages 766-797, November.
    6. Bruce Champ & Bruce D. Smith & Stephen D. Williamson, 1996. "Currency Elasticity and Banking Panics: Theory and Evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(4), pages 828-864, November.
    7. Sargent, Thomas J. & Wallace, Meil, 1983. "A model of commodity money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 163-187.
    8. Rolnick, Arthur J. & Weber, Warren E., 1984. "The causes of free bank failures : A detailed examination," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 267-291, November.
    9. Arthur J. Rolnick & Bruce Smith & Warren E. Weber, 1998. "Lessons from a laissez-faire payments system: the Suffolk Banking System, 1825-58," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 105-116.
    10. Rolnick, Arthur J & Weber, Warren E, 1983. "New Evidence on the Free Banking Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1080-1091, December.
    11. Stacey L. Schreft & Bruce D. Smith, 1998. "The Effects of Open Market Operations in a Model of Intermediation and Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(3), pages 519-550.
    12. Schreft, Stacey L. & Smith, Bruce D., 1997. "Money, Banking, and Capital Formation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 157-182, March.
    13. Rockoff, Hugh, 1974. "The Free Banking Era: A Reexamination," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(2), pages 141-167, May.
    14. Lake, Wilfred S., 1947. "The End of the Suffolk System," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 183-207, November.
    15. Neil Wallace, 1988. "Another attempt to explain an illiquid banking system: the Diamond and Dybvig model with sequential service taken seriously," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 12(Fall), pages 3-16.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Beatrix Paal & Bruce D. Smith, 2013. "The sub-optimality of the Friedman rule and the optimum quantity of money," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 911-948, November.
    2. repec:cuf:journl:y:2013:v:14:i:3:paal is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gersbachd, Hans, 1998. "Liquidity Creation, Efficiency, and Free Banking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 91-118, January.
    4. Schreft, Stacey L. & Smith, Bruce D., 2000. "The evolution of cash transactions: Some implications for monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 97-120, August.
    5. Edgar A. Ghossoub, 2013. "Banking Competition: Implications for Welfare and Monetary Policy," Working Papers 0182eco, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    6. Tarishi Matsuoka, 2011. "Monetary Policy and Banking Structure," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(6), pages 1109-1129, September.
    7. Antoine Martin, 2005. "Reconciling Bagehot with the Fed's response to September 11," Staff Reports 217, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Horwitz Steven & Bodenhorn Howard, 1994. "A Property Rights Approach to Free Banking," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 5(4), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Edgar A. Ghossoub, 2016. "Commercial Banks, Credit Unions, and Monetary Policy," Working Papers 0174eco, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    10. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Haslag, Joseph & Martin, Antoine, 2009. "Optimal monetary policy and economic growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 210-221, February.
    11. Schreft, Stacey L. & Smith, Bruce D., 1997. "Money, Banking, and Capital Formation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 157-182, March.
    12. Antoine Martin, 2009. "Reconciling Bagehot and the Fed's Response to September 11," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(2‐3), pages 397-415, March.
    13. Antinolfi, Gaetano & Huybens, Elisabeth & Keister, Todd, 2001. "Monetary Stability and Liquidity Crises: The Role of the Lender of Last Resort," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 99(1-2), pages 187-219, July.
    14. John H. Boyd & Bruce A. Champ, 2003. "Inflation and financial market performance: what have we learned in the last ten years?," Working Papers (Old Series) 0317, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    15. Edgar A. Ghossoub, 2015. "Endogenous Financial Structure and Monetary Policy," Working Papers 0162eco, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    16. Espinosa-Vega, Marco A & Yip, Chong K, 1999. "Fiscal and Monetary Policy Interactions in an Endogenous Growth Model with Financial Intermediaries," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(3), pages 595-615, August.
    17. Ghossoub, Edgar A., 2012. "Liquidity risk and financial competition: Implications for asset prices and monetary policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 155-173.
    18. Bullard, James & Smith, Bruce D., 2003. "Intermediaries and payments instruments," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 172-197, April.
    19. Edgar A. Ghossoub & Thanarak Laosuthi & Robert R. Reed, 2012. "The role of financial sector competition for monetary policy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 270-287, February.
    20. Gaetano Antinolfi & Claudia M. Landeo & Maxim Nikitin, 2007. "Dollarization and the inflation threshold," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(2), pages 628-649, May.
    21. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Singh, Rajesh, 2005. "Optimal Choice of Monetary Instruments in an Economy with Real and Liquidity Shocks," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12355, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    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:mcb:jmoncb:v:31:y:1999:i:3:p:624-59. 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: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2879 .

    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.