This paper incorporates banks and banking panics within a conventional macroeconomic framework to analyze the dynamics of a financial crisis of the kind recently experienced. We are particularly interested in characterizing the sudden and discrete nature of banking panics as well as the circumstances that makes an economy vulnerable to such panics in some instances but not in others. Having a conventional macroeconomic model allows us to study the channels by which the crisis affects real activity both qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition to modeling the financial collapse, we also introduce a belief driven credit boom that increases the susceptibility of the economy to a disruptive banking panic.
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Banking Panics as Endogenous Disasters and the Welfare Gains from Macroprudential Policy
We study the welfare effects of macroprudential policy in a macroeconomic model of banking instability. Banking panics are endogenous economic disasters caused by banks' excessive leverage during credit booms. The model matches the frequency and severity of banking panics and the statistical relationship between panics and credit booms. A simple countercyclical macroprudential rule can achieve non-negligible welfare gains. These gains rise substantially when the run probability increases during a credit boom and, ex post, if a run is actually avoided. In a model without panics in which financial crises are driven by fundamentals only, the gains are much more limited.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917916
- PAR ID:
- 10228870
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- AEA Papers and Proceedings
- Volume:
- 110
- ISSN:
- 2574-0768
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 463 to 469
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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