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How Important Are Banks for Development? National Banks in the United States, 1870-1900

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  • Scott L. Fulford

    (Boston College)

Abstract

Do banks matter for growth, and if so, how? This paper examines the effects of national banks in the United States from 1870 to 1900. I use the discontinuity in entry caused by a large minimum size requirement to identify the effects of banking. For the counties on the margin between getting a bank and not, gaining a bank increased production per person by 10%. National banks in rural areas improved agriculture over manufacturing, moving counties toward geographic comparative advantage. Since these banks made few long-term loans, the evidence suggests that the provision of working capital and liquidity matters for growth.

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  • Scott L. Fulford, 2015. "How Important Are Banks for Development? National Banks in the United States, 1870-1900," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 921-938, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:97:y:2015:i:5:p:921-938
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    Cited by:

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    2. Matthew Jaremski & Peter L. Rousseau, 2013. "Banks, Free Banks, And U.S. Economic Growth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1603-1621, April.
    3. Abdullahi Osman Ali, 2021. "Impact of Monetary Policy Fluctuations on Conventional and Islamic Banks in Malaysia: Evidence from ARDL Approach," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(1), pages 101-108.
    4. Pere Arqué-Castells & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2013. "Banking towards development: Evidence from the Spanish banking expansion plan," Working Papers 2013/8, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    5. Hilt, Eric & Jaremski, Matthew & Rahn, Wendy, 2022. "When Uncle Sam introduced Main Street to Wall Street: Liberty Bonds and the transformation of American finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 194-216.
    6. Da Mata, Daniel & Resende, Guilherme, 2020. "Changing the climate for banking: The economic effects of credit in a climate-vulnerable area," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Scott L. Fulford & Ivan Petkov & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2020. "Does it matter where you came from? Ancestry composition and economic performance of US counties, 1850–2010," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 341-380, September.
    8. Howard Bodenhorn & David Cuberes, 2010. "Financial Development and City Growth: Evidence from Northeastern American Cities, 1790-1870," NBER Working Papers 15997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Pere Arqué-castells & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2016. "Banking the unbanked: Evidence from the Spanish Banking Expansion Plan," Working Papers 2016/24, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    10. Scott L. Fulford & Felipe Schwartzman, 2020. "The Benefits of Commitment to a Currency Peg: Aggregate Lessons from the Regional Effects of the 1896 U.S. Presidential Election," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 600-616, July.
    11. Bodenhorn, Howard & Cuberes, David, 2018. "Finance and urbanization in early nineteenth-century New York," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 47-58.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    national banks; commercial banking; financial development; growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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