Skip to main content
Log in

In defense of bank suspension

  • Published:
Journal of Financial Services Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Resort to bank suspension is generally viewed as an unacceptable means for coping with bank panics, in part because suspension is assumed to involve unacceptably high welfare costs. In Diamond and Dybvig (1983), suspension is costly because it interferes with agents' welfare-maximizing consumption plans. Here a modified version of the Diamond-Dybvig model is used to show how suspension may have only minor welfare costs so long as bank debt is transactable and can serve as a medium of exchange.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, Benjamin M.Economics and the Public Welfare Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrew, A. Piatt. “Substitutes for Cash in the Panic of 1907.”Quarterly Journal of Economics (August 1908), 497–519.

  • Burns, Helen M.The American Banking Community and New Deal Banking Reforms 1933–1935, Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calomiris, Charles W., and Charles M. Kahn. “The Role of Demandable Debt in Structuring Optimal Banking Arrangements.”American Economic Review 81(3) (January 1991, 497–513).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chari, V.V. “Banking Without Deposit Insurance or Bank Panics: Lessons from a Model of the U.S. National Banking System.” Federal Reserve Bank of MinneapolisQuarterly Review (Summer 1989, 3–19).

  • Checkland, S.G.Scottish Banking: A History, 1695–1973. Glasgow: Collins, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Douglas W., and Philip H. Dybvig. “Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity.”Jounal of Political Economy 91(3) (June 1983), 401–419.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowd, Kevin, “Option Clauses and the Stability of Laissez-Faire Monetary System”Journal of Financial Services Research 1 (1988), 319–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowd, Kevin. “Option Clauses and Bank Suspension.” Unpublished manuscript, University of Nottingham, 1989.

  • —. “Models of Banking Instability: A Partial Review of the Literature.”Journal of Economic Surveys 6 (2) (1992), 107–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, Gerald P., Jr., and R. Anton Gilbert. “Bank Runs and Private Remedies.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. LouisReview 71(3) (May/June 1989), 43–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engineer, Merwan. “Bank Runs and Suspension of Deposit Convertibility.”Journal of Monetary Economics 24(3) (November 1989): 443–454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Milton, and AnnaJacobson Schwartz.A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 Princeton, N.J.: Phnceton University Press, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorton, Gary. “Bank Suspension of Convertibility.”Journal of Monetary Economics 15 (1985), 177–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. “Banking Panics and Business Cycles.”Oxford Economic Papers 40 (December 1988) 751–781.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horwitz, Steven. “Competitive Currencies, Legal Restrictions, and the Origins of the Fed: Some Evidence from the Panic of 1907.”Southern Economic Journal 56(3) (January 1990), 639–649.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kane, Edward,The S & L Insurance Mess: How Did it Happen? Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • Loewy, Michael B. “The Macroeconomic Effects of Bank Runs: An Equilibrium Analysis.”Journal of Financial Intermediation 1 (1991). 292–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musgrave, Alan. “Unreal Assumptions' in Economic Theory: The F-Twist Untwisted.”Kyklos 34(3), (1981) 377–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redlich, Fritz.The Molding of American Banking. New York: Harper Publishing Company, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberds, William. “Lenders of the Next-to-Last Resort: Scrip Issue in Georgia During the Great Depression.” Federal Reserve Bank of AtlantaEconomic Review (September/October 1990), 16–30.

  • Rockoff, Hugh. “Institutional Requirements for Stable Free Banking.”Cato Journal 6(2) (Fall 1986), 617–634.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selgin, George, and Lawrence H. White. “The Evolution of a Free Banking System.”Economic Inquiry, 1987.

  • Sprague, O.M.W.History of Crises under the National Banking System. Washington, D.C. National Monetary Commission, 1910.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timberlake, Richard H. “The Central Banking Role of Clearinghouse Associations.”Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (February 1984), 1–15.

  • Wallace, Neil. “Another Attempt to Explain an Illiquid Banking System: The Diamond and Dybvig Model with Sequential Service Taken Seriously.” Federal Reserve Bank of MinneapolisQuarterly Review 12(4) (Fall 1988) 3–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • ——. “A Banking Model in Which Partial Suspension Is Best.” Federal Reserve Bank of MinneapolisQuarterly Review 14(4) (Fall 1990), 11–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, John DeWitt. “The Currency Famine of 1893.”Sound Currency 2(6) (February, 1895), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

My thanks go to Kevin Dowd, Robert Eisenbeis, George Kaufman, Bill Lastrapes, Dick Timberlake, Lawrence H. White, William Woolsey, and two anonymous referees for their suggestions. The article's remaining faults

My thanks go to Kevin Dowd, Robert Eisenbeis, George Kaufman, Bill Lastrapes, Dick Timberlake, Lawrence H. White, William Woolsey, and two anonymous referees for their suggestions. The article's remaining faults

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Selgin, G. In defense of bank suspension. J Finan Serv Res 7, 347–364 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01046928

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01046928

Keywords

Navigation