Bank Panics and the Endogeneity of Central Banking

50 Pages Posted: 16 Aug 2002 Last revised: 16 Nov 2022

See all articles by Gary B. Gorton

Gary B. Gorton

Yale School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Yale University - Yale Program on Financial Stability

Lixin Huang

Georgia State University

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 2002

Abstract

Central banking is intimately related to liquidity provision to banks during times of crisis, the lender-of-last-resort function. This activity arose endogenously in certain banking systems. Depositors lack full information about the value of bank assets so that during macroeconomic downturns they monitor their banks by withdrawing in a banking panic. The likelihood of panics depends on the industrial organization of the banking system. Banking systems with many small, undiversified banks, are prone to panics and failures, unlike systems with a few big banks that are heavily branched and well diversified. Systems of many small banks are more efficient if the banks form coalitions during times of crisis. We provide conditions under which the industrial organization of banking leads to incentive compatible state contingent bank coalition formation. Such coalitions issue money that is a kind of deposit insurance and examine and supervise banks. Bank coalitions of small banks, however, cannot replicate the efficiency of a system of big banks.

Suggested Citation

Gorton, Gary B. and Huang, Lixin, Bank Panics and the Endogeneity of Central Banking (August 2002). NBER Working Paper No. w9102, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=324044

Gary B. Gorton (Contact Author)

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Lixin Huang

Georgia State University ( email )

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