Abstract

We offer an account of China’s unparalleled economic rise by considering evidence on public banks and their role in decentralizing the resource allocation task of a growing economy. Chinese economic and banking history since the post-Mao reforms reveals an ingenious integration by the local policymakers of Currency (public money supply) and Banking School (decentralized money creation) policy recommendations previously thought incompatible, resulting in a social democracy with Chinese characteristics. Our theoretical and historical discussions offer policy insights into the constructive role of quantitative public bank easing in economic development

Abstract

KEYWORDS
credit, disequilibrium, forecasting, GARCH models, interest rates and economic activity,
monetary policy, rationing, time-varying dynamic conditional correlation

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises, in aggregate, are the biggest employer in most countries, accounting for about two thirds of all employment in the UK, and an even greater proportion in Germany and Japan. Small firms are largely dependent on bank credit for external funding. This paper examines the question whether there is a significant relationship between bank size and customer size and whether bigger or smaller banks are more likely to be helpful to small and very small businesses in terms of providing loans. Using data on over 14,000 active and inactive U.S. banks of all sizes, from 1994 to 2013, utilising over 178,000 observations, we conduct hitherto the largest empirical examination of this question, applying a new and superior methodology that resolves prior controversies. The results are robust and indicate an inverse relationship between bank size and the propensity of banks to lend to small businesses. We thus contribute towards settling a long-standing debate about the influence of bank size on bank finance for small firms. Policy implications are discussed, such as the importance of a diverse and decentralised banking sector that includes a large number of small banks, such as exists in the US (but not in the UK), in order to help overcome growth constraints on small and micro businesses.

Abstract

In this paper, an inductive research methodology and the principle of parsimony are applied to reconsider a central issue in economics and macro-finance, namely the determinants of economic growth and the role of the financial sector. A simple framework is derived, characterised by information imperfections and the absence of market clearing. The literature on rationing has identified the need to consider differing rationing regimes but has not included a banking sector. Such a set-up is presented in this paper, which identifies the link between credit and economic growth under differing rationing regimes, with varying consequences for inflation. The familiar case of money creation resulting in inflation features as a special case within the general framework. Others are the possibility of asset price bubbles and collapses, non-inflationary growth despite full employment, and instability in banking systems. The model is consistent with empirical evidence that has been difficult to reconcile with conventional equilibrium models. It is found that within this simple rationing framework, banks, left to their own devices, do not necessarily deliver stable, non-inflationary growth, and there is no reason to expect their behaviour to optimise social welfare. Some implications for research and policy are discussed.

Keywords: banking; credit; development; equation of exchange; finance and growth; growth; growth accounting; quantity equation

Abstract

Abstract

Hans Christoph Binswanger, 1929-2018, was a professor of economics at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His major interests and contributions were in the areas of macroeconomics, monetary economics, growth economics, development economics, ecological economics and the history of economic thought. He also made significant contributions to the field of economics and literature, as well as taxation. He was a co-founder of the Institute for Economy and Ecology at the University of St. Gallen and headed it from to 1992 to 1995. He co-founded the (German-language) association of ecological economics. He was awarded many prizes and his impact on society was significant, not least via his impact in the area of literature, through which he reached a broad audience. Professor Binswanger recognised the role of banks as creators of money and criticised the fictional economic theories that fail to include a central role for money, banking and credit. One of his best-known books is Money and Magic, recently re-published in English with a foreword by Lord Adair Turner (Binswanger, 2016), in which he contends (and argues that Goethe contended) that the modern economy is the human attempt to achieve eternity, via the alchemical (i.e. ‘magic’ and deceptive) monetary process, which results in dislocations and harm to the environment, but is ultimately doomed to failure

Abstract

By Jorge Bermejo Carbonell and Richard A. Werner

Keywords

Bubbles; Crashes; Elasticity of variance; Extreme events line; Herding; Tranquility zone; Volatility

Keywords

Bank accounting; Bank credit; Credit creation; Economics; Financial intermediation; Foreign borrowing; Fractional reserve banking; Money creation

Keywords

Bank credit; Credit channel; General-to-specific method; Growth; Monetary policy transmission; Quantitative Easing; Quantity Theory of Credit

Abstract

Thanks to the recent banking crises interest has grown in banks and how they operate. In the past, the empirical and institutional market micro-structure of the operation of banks had not been a primary focus for investigations by researchers, which is why they are not well covered in the literature. One neglected detail is the banks’ function as the creators and allocators of about 97% of the money supply (Werner, 1997 and Werner, 2005), which has recently attracted attention (Bank of England, 2014a, Bank of England, 2014b, Werner, 2014b and Werner, 2014c). It is the purpose of this paper to investigate precisely how banks create money, and why or whether companies cannot do the same. Since the implementation of banking operations takes place within a corporate accounting framework, this paper is based upon a comparative accounting analysis perspective. By breaking the accounting treatment of lending into two steps, the difference in the accounting operation by bank and non-bank corporations can be isolated. As a result, it can be established precisely why banks are different and what it is that makes them different: They are exempted from the Client Money Rules and thus, unlike other firms, do not have to segregate client money. This enables banks to classify their accounts payable liabilities arising from bank loan contracts as a different type of liability called ‘customer deposits’. The finding is important for many reasons, including for modelling the banking sector accurately in economic models, bank regulation and also for monetary reform proposals that aim at taking away the privilege of money creation from banks. The paper thus adds to the growing literature on the institutional details and market micro-structure of our financial and monetary system, and in particular offers a new contribution to the literature on ‘what makes banks different’, from an accounting and regulatory perspective, solving the puzzle of why banks combine lending and deposit-taking operations under one roof.

Keywords

Bank accounting; Bank lending; Client money rules; Credit creation; Loans; Monetary reform

Abstract

Unconventional approaches to suit unusual circumstances have become acceptable in monetary policy, a formerly highly conservative discipline. In this paper it is argued that unconventional approaches should also be considered in sovereign debt management, in order to contribute to resolving the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. First, the Troika crisis lending to indebted sovereign borrowers in the eurozone is reviewed and compared with standard IMF post-crisis lending. The main difference and shortcoming is the unsustainable character of the eurozone approach, due to the omission of demand stimulation components. To address this and other shortcomings, the features of an ideal alternative funding tool are identified. It would solve the funding problems of affected sovereigns, help stabilise the banking system, but most of all stimulate domestic demand and hence end the vicious downward spiral. It is found that this funding method can be implemented as part of enhanced public debt management by each nation’s debt management office.

Keywords

Bank credit; Credit creation; Enhanced Debt Management; Public debt management; Quantitative Easing; Quantity Theory of Credit

Keywords

Bank credit; Credit creation; Financial intermediation; Fractional reserve banking; Money creation

Abstract

Thanks to the banking crisis, there has been a greater awareness that leading economic theories and models, as well as influential advanced textbooks in macroeconomics and monetary economics may have been amiss when they neglected to include banks in their analyses. Economists are now labouring to include banking in their models. However already sixteen years ago a paper was published in this journal which presented probably the simplest possible framework that incorporates the economic consequences of banking into a macroeconomic framework: The ‘Quantity Theory of Credit’ (QTC, Werner (1997)). It resolves a number of perceived ‘anomalies’ in macroeconomics and finance, can be used to explain and predict banking crises, and carries a number of policy implications about how to enhance financial stability and deliver sustainable growth. Unlike many better known and far more complex models and theories, it has fared well during the turbulent period since it was proposed. In this paper QTC is revisited and a number of questions that have been raised in the profession concerning it are discussed. It is then applied to the following questions: how to detect and avoid banking crises; how to deliver sustainable and stable economic growth; how to end post-crisis recessions quickly – such as those in many European economies – while minimising costs to the tax payer; and finally, what a financial architecture would look like that has a higher chance of delivering the latter goals on a regular basis.

Abstract

The financial crisis has triggered a new consensus among economists that it is necessary to include a banking sector in macroeconomic models. It is also necessary for the finance and banking literature to consider how best to incorporate systemic, macroeconomic feedbacks into its modelling of financial intermediation. Thus a new research programme on the link between banking and the economy is needed. This special issue is devoted to this theme. In this paper an overview of the issues and problems in the economics and finance literature is presented, and a concrete, simple approach is identified of how to incorporate banks into a macroeconomic model that solves many of these issues. The model distinguishes between the type of credit that boosts GDP and credit that is associated with asset prices and banking crises. The model is consistent with the empirical record. Some applications are discussed, namely the prediction and prevention of banking crises, implications for fiscal policy, and a solution to the European sovereign debt crisis that stimulates growth while avoiding the corner solutions of euro exit or fiscal union.

Keywords

Bank credit; Banking and the economy; Credit creation; Disaggregation of credit; Methodology; Quantity equation; Macroeconomics; Quantity Theory of Credit

Abstract
This paper investigates the effectiveness of the ‘quantitative easing’ policy, as officially implemented by the
Bank of England since March 2009. A policy of the same name had previously been implemented in Japan,
which serves as a reference. While the majority of the previous literature has measured the effectiveness of
QE by its impact on interest rates, in this paper the effectiveness of all Bank of England policies, including QE,
is measured by their impact on the declared goal of the QE policy, namely nominal GDP growth. Further,
unlike other works on policy evaluation, in this paper we use the general-to-specific econometric modelling
methodology (a.k.a. the ‘Hendry’ or ‘LSE’ methodology) in order to determine the relative importance of Bank
of England policies, including QE. The empirical analysis indicates that QE as defined and announced in March
2009 had no apparent effect on the UK economy. Meanwhile, it is found that a policy of ‘quantitative easing’
as defined in the original sense of the term (Werner, 1995c) is supported by empirical evidence: a stable
relationship between a lending aggregate (disaggregated M4 lending, singling out bank credit for GDP
transactions) and nominal GDP is found. The findings imply that the central bank should more directly target
the growth of bank credit for GDP-transactions, which was still contracting in late 2011. A number of
measures exist to boost it, but they have hitherto not been taken.

JEL classifications:
E41
E52
E58
Keywords:
Central banking
Credit creation
General-to-specific methodology
Intermediate targets
Monetary policy
Operating tools
Qualitative easing
Quantitative easing
QE
Zero bound

Introduction

Alan Greenspan confessed in 2008 to recognizing a ‘flaw’ in mainstream approaches to how financial markets work (Congress, 2010). Donald Kohn (2009), as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Reserve, admitted:
“It is fair to say . . . that the core macroeconomic modelling framework used at the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world has included, at best, only a limited role for . . . credit provision, and financial intermediation. . . . asset price movements and the feedback among those movements, credit supply, and economic activity were not well captured by the models used at most central banks.”
The research agenda which culminated in macromodels without banks (Walsh, 2003), without monetary aggregates (Woodford, 2003), or without a financial sector (most real business cycle and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models), has not been successful.
Macroeconomics has proceeded down the wrong path. In order to find the right one, we need to return to the crossroads at which it was taken. In the 1980s, the prevailing approaches faced deep problems. At the time, classical, many neoclassical, Keynesian, monetarist, post-Keynesian and many eclectic approaches shared one fundamental pillar linking money (M) to the economy: the ‘equation of exchange’ or ‘quantity equation’:
MV = PY (1)
For monetary policy purposes, to explain and forecast GDP (Y) and prices (P), as well as to estimate the money demand function, a stable velocity V was required. This stability was the thread on which macroeconomics hung. It held up for a while, but increasingly a ‘velocity decline’ was observed: nominal GDP did not grow as much as the money supply.

While the velocity decline has accelerated in many countries since, economists have turned away from the problem—not because a solution had been found, but because they had given
up searching for an answer. This was precisely the time when the moneyless economic models became increasingly attractive to economists. They were a form of escapism:
instead of rising to the empirical challenge to improve on their understanding of the monetary sector, economists chose to pretend that money and banks did not exist and had no influence on the economy. This was possible thanks to the prevalence of the hypothetico-deductive approach, which places little emphasis on empirical facts.

The new moneyless economics however merely produced further empirical puzzles and ‘anomalies’ which by today have also discredited it: ‘The notion that there is something about banks that makes them “special” is a recurrent theme’ (Blanchard and Fischer, 1989, p. 478), one that is empirically well supported (e.g. Peek and Rosengren, 2000; Ashcraft, 2005; Werner, 2005; see also Fama, 1985). However, economists failed to identify what makes banks special. So the recurring banking crises have remained unexplained as well—a highly visible and embarrassing refutation of moneyless and bank-less macroeconomics.

There is a future for macroeconomics, if it can explain the many and major empirical puzzles. Below I suggest a solution that has performed well empirically. It also has the advantage of being simpler: the principle of parsimony holds that a simpler explanation, relying on fewer assumptions, is preferable to a more complex one. Finally, it is not based on the deductive methodology, which was instrumental in leading macroeconomics into a cul-de-sac.

Abstract