IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedlwp/1992-007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Government policy and banking instability: \"overbanking\" in the 1920s

Author

Abstract

Excess capacity, or ?overbanking,? was cited by contemporaries as leading cause of bank failure during the 1920s. Many states that had high numbers of banks per capita in 1920 had high bank failure rates subsequently. This article finds that the number of banks per capita was highest in states that provided deposit insurance, set low minimum capital requirements, and restricted branching. Banks per capita declined the most over the 1920s in states where branching expanded, and in those suffering high failure rates because of falling incomes or instability caused by deposit insurance. Deposit insurance and the relative dominance of agriculture also explain the composition of state banking systems between state and federally chartered institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • David C. Wheelock, 1992. "Government policy and banking instability: \"overbanking\" in the 1920s," Working Papers 1992-007, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:1992-007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/more/1992-007/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/1992/92-007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keeley, Michael C, 1990. "Deposit Insurance, Risk, and Market Power in Banking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1183-1200, December.
    2. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    3. Gary Gorton & Richard J. Rosen, 1991. "Overcapacity and exit from banking," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    4. Mark D. Flood, 1992. "The great deposit insurance debate," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jul, pages 51-77.
    5. Carl M. Gambs, 1977. "Bank failures -- an historical perspective," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 62(Jun), pages 10-20.
    6. Alston, Lee J., 1983. "Farm Foreclosures in the United States During the Interwar Period," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 885-903, December.
    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. 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.
    2. Gropp, Reint E. & Köhler, Matthias, 2010. "Bank owners or bank managers: who is keen on risk? Evidence from the financial crisis," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-013, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Kim, Teakdong & Koo, Bonwoo & Park, Minsoo, 2013. "Role of financial regulation and innovation in the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 662-672.
    4. Ongena, Steven & Popov, Alexander & Udell, Gregory F., 2013. "“When the cat's away the mice will play”: Does regulation at home affect bank risk-taking abroad?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 727-750.
    5. Allen N. Berger & Björn Imbierowicz & Christian Rauch, 2016. "The Roles of Corporate Governance in Bank Failures during the Recent Financial Crisis," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(4), pages 729-770, June.
    6. Koutsomanoli-Filippaki, Anastasia I. & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel C., 2011. "Efficiency under quantile regression: What is the relationship with risk in the EU banking industry?," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 84-95, May.
    7. Cheng, Maoyong & Geng, Hongyan & Zhang, Junrui, 2016. "Chinese commercial banks: Benefits from foreign strategic investors?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 147-172.
    8. Zheng, Changjun & Moudud-Ul-Huq, Syed & Rahman, Mohammad Morshedur & Ashraf, Badar Nadeem, 2017. "Does the ownership structure matter for banks’ capital regulation and risk-taking behavior? Empirical evidence from a developing country," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 404-421.
    9. Bui, Dien Giau & Chen, Yan-Shing & Hsu, Hsing-Hua & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2020. "Labor unions and bank risk culture: evidence from the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Gueyie, Jean-Pierre & Lai, Van Son, 2003. "Bank moral hazard and the introduction of official deposit insurance in Canada," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 247-273.
    11. Ben Naceur, Samy & Kandil, Magda, 2009. "The impact of capital requirements on banks' cost of intermediation and performance: The case of Egypt," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 70-89.
    12. Gardó, Sándor & Klaus, Benjamin, 2020. "Overcapacities in banking: Measurement, trends and determinants," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 819-834.
    13. Guo, Lin, 2003. "Inferring market information from the price and quantity of S&L deposits," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 2177-2202, November.
    14. Cowan, Arnold R. & Howell, Jann C. & Power, Mark L., 2002. "Wealth effects of banks' rights to market and originate annuities," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 487-503.
    15. Gonzalez, Francisco, 2005. "Bank regulation and risk-taking incentives: An international comparison of bank risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1153-1184, May.
    16. Beutel, Johannes & Metiu, Norbert & Stockerl, Valentin, 2021. "Toothless tiger with claws? Financial stability communication, expectations, and risk-taking," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 53-69.
    17. Linda M. Hooks & Kenneth J. Robinson, 1996. "Moral hazard and Texas banking in the 1920s," Financial Industry Studies Working Paper 96-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    18. Vihriälä, Vesa, 1997. "Banks and the Finnish credit cycle 1986-1995," Bank of Finland Scientific Monographs, Bank of Finland, volume 0, number sm1997_007.
    19. Jayaratne, Jith & Strahan, Philip E, 1998. "Entry Restrictions, Industry Evolution, and Dynamic Efficiency: Evidence from Commercial Banking," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 239-273, April.
    20. Sullivan, Richard J. & Spong, Kenneth R., 2007. "Manager wealth concentration, ownership structure, and risk in commercial banks," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 229-248, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank failures; Deposit insurance;

    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:fip:fedlwp:1992-007. 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: Anna Oates (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.html .

    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.