Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:00:19.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Domestic Exchange Rates and Regional Economic Growth in the United States, 1899–1908: Evidence from Cointegration Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Ronnie J. Phillips
Affiliation:
Professor and Harvey Cutler is Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1771. E-mail: [email protected].
Harvey Cutler
Affiliation:
Professor and Harvey Cutler is Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1771. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

This article examines one feature of the pre—Federal Reserve financial system that has not been widely researched: the market for bank drafts (the “domestic exchanges”). Though the exchanges existed for nearly a century, critics argued that exchange rate fluctuations exacerbated financial panics. We find, using cointegration analysis over the period from 1899 to 1908, that differences in growth rates across regions caused predictable movements in rates. We conclude that the exchanges promoted efficiency in the payments system. This supports the view that the private sector might have developed a unified national system had the Fed not abolished the exchanges.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baxter, William F.Bank Interchange of Transactional Paper: Legal and Economic Perspectives.” Journal of Law and Economics 26 no. 3 (1983): 541–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, Allen N., and Humphrey, David B.. “The Role of Interstate Banking in the Diffusion of Electronic Payments Technology.” In Technological Innovation, Regulation, and the Monetary Economy, edited by Lawrence, Colin and Shay, Robert B., 1352. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1986.Google Scholar
Berger, Allen N., and Humphrey, David B.. “Interstate Banking and the Payments System.” Journal of Financial Services Research 1, no. 2 (1988): 131–45.Google Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard. 1992. “Capital Mobility and Financial Integration in Antebellum America.” this JOURNAL 52, no. 3 (1992): 585610.Google Scholar
Calomiris, Charles, and Charles, Kahn. “The Role of Demandable Debt in Structuring Optimal Banking.” American Economic Review 81, no. 3 (1991): 497513.Google Scholar
Cannon, James G.Clearinghouses. Washington, DC: National Monetaly Commission, 1910.Google Scholar
Carlton, Dennis W., and Frankel, Alan S.. “The Antitrust Economics of Credit Card Networks.” Antitrust Law Journal 63, no. 2 (1995): 643–68.Google Scholar
Cutler, Harvey, Stephen, Davies, Janice, Rhodd, and Walter, Schwarm. “The Demand for Ml in a Large Macroeconomic System: Evidence from Cointegration Analysis.” Journal of Macroeconomics 19, no. 1 (1997): 5378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, Harvey, Stephen, Davies, and Martin, Schmidt. “The Demand for Nominal and Real Balances in a Large Macroeconomic System.” Southern Economic Journal 63, no. 4 (1997): 947–61.Google Scholar
Davis, Lance E.The Investment Market, 1870–1914: The Evolution of a National Market.” this JOURNAL 25, no. 3 (1965): 355–99.Google Scholar
Garbade, Kenneth D., and Silber, William L.. “The Payment System and Domestic Exchange Rates: Technological versus Institutional Change.” Journal of Monetary Economics 5, no. 1 (1979): 122.Google Scholar
Alton, Gilbert R.. “Financial Regulation in the Information Age.” Fourteenth Annual Cato Monetary Conference, Washington, D.C., 1996.Google Scholar
Alton, Gilbert R.. “Did the Fed's Founding Improve the Efficiency of the United States Payment System?” Twenty-second Annual Economic Policy Conference: Lessons from Financial History. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 161710 1997.Google Scholar
Hendry, David F., and Mizon, Grayham E.. “Evaluating Dynamic Econometric Models by Encompassing the VAR.” In Models, Methods, and Applications of Econometrics: Essays in Honor of A. R Bergstrom, edited by Phillips, C. B., 272300. Cambridge, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.Google Scholar
Humphrey, David, and Allen, Berger. “Market Failure and Resource Use: Economic Incentives to Use Different Payment Instruments.” In The US. Payments System. Efficiency, Rislc and the Role of the Federal Reserve, edited by Humphrey, David, 4586. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990.Google Scholar
Ingrassia, Lawrence. “One Dollar is Worth One Dollar, but that Wasn't Always So.” Wall Street Journal, 1 01 1998.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Jane. Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life. New York: Random House, 1984.Google Scholar
James, John A.The Development of the National Money Market, 1893–1911.” this JOURNAL 36, no. 4 (1976): 878–97.Google Scholar
James, John A.. “Banking Market Structure, Risk, and the Pattern of Local Interest Rates in the United States, 1893–1911. The Review of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 4 (1976): 453–62.Google Scholar
Johansen, Soren. “Statistical Analysis of Cointegration Vectors.” Journal of Economics Dynamics and Control 12, nos. 2–3 (1988): 231–54.Google Scholar
Johansen, Soren. “Cointegration in Partial Systems and the Efficiency of Single-Equation Analysis,” Journal of Econometrics 52, no. 3 (1992): 389402.Google Scholar
Johansen, Soren, and Katarina, Juselius. “Testing Structural Hypotheses in a Multivariate Cointegration Analysis ofthe PPP and UIP for UK.” Journal of Econometrics 53, nos. 1–3 (1992): 211–44.Google Scholar
Kemmerer, Edwin Walter. Seasonal Variations in the Relative Demand for Money and Capital in the United States: A Statistical Study. Washington, DC: GPO, 1910Google Scholar
Knodell, Jane. “The Demise of Central Banking and the Domestic Exchanges: Evidence from Antebellum Ohio.” this JOURNAL 58, no. 3 (1998): 714–30.Google Scholar
National Monetary Commission. MiscellaneousArticles on German Banking. Washington, DC: GPO, 1910.Google Scholar
National Monetary Comminssion. The Reichsbank and the Renewal of its Charter. Washington, DC: GPO, 1910.Google Scholar
Phillips, P. C. B.Optimal Inference in Cointegrated Systems.” Econometrica 59, no. 2, (1991): 283306.Google Scholar
Phillips, Ronnie J., and Swamy, P. A. V. B.. “Par Clearance in the Domestic Exchanges: The Impact ofNational Banimotes.” In Research in Economic History, Vol. 18, edited by Field, Alexander J., 121–44. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Reed, Harold L.Money Currrency and Banking. NewYod: McGraw-HillBookCompany, Inc., 1942.Google Scholar
Selgin, George, and White, Lawrence H.. “How would the Invisible Hand Handle Money?Journal of Economic Literature 32, no. 4 (1994): 1718–49.Google Scholar
Smiley, Gene. “Interest Rate Movement in the United States, 1888–1913.” this JOURNAL 36, no. 3 (1976): 591620.Google Scholar
Spahr, Walter. The Clearing and Collection of Checks. New York: Bankers Publishing Company, 1926.Google Scholar
Sprague, O. M. W.History of Crises Under the National Banking System. Washington, DC: The National Monetary Commission, 1910.Google Scholar
Stock, James, and Mark, Watson. “A Simple Estimator of Cointegrating Vectors in Higher Order Integrated Systems.” Econometrica 61, no. 4 (1993): 783820.Google Scholar
Summers, Bruce., ed. The Payment System: Design, Management, and Supervision. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 1994.Google Scholar
Sylla, Richard. “Federal Policy, Banking Market Structure, and Capital Mobilization in the United States, 1863–1913.” this JOURNAL 29, no.4 (1969): 657–86.Google Scholar
Tallman, Ellis W., and Moen, Jon R.. “Private Sector Responses to the Panic of 1907: A Comparison of New York and Chicago.” Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, (1995): 19.Google Scholar
Parker, Willis H., and Steiner, William H.. Federal Reserve Banking Practice. New York: D. Apple ton and Company, 1926.Google Scholar