IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedcwp/0213.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Scope and scale economies in Federal Reserve payment processing

Author

Abstract

In the past decade, the U.S. economy has witnessed a tremendous surge in the usage of electronic payment processing services and an increased importance of the firms that provide these services. The payments industry has also undergone changes in cost structure with the introduction of new technology. Unfortunately, data on the private provision of payment processing services are not available. However, the Federal Reserve provides similar services and collects data on its own provision of payments processing, offering an opportunity to gain insights into the cost structure of payments processing. In this paper, we estimate the scope and scale economies and the technical change in the Federal Reserve's provision of payments processing from 1990-2000. We find considerable scale economies and evidence of some scope economies for the provision of automated clearinghouse, fedwire, and book-entry services no matter whether we specify a separable quadratic or a translog cost function. In addition, we find that disembodied technical change also attributed to the overall reduction in costs through the 1990s.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert M. Adams & Paul W. Bauer & Robin C. Sickles, 2002. "Scope and scale economies in Federal Reserve payment processing," Working Papers (Old Series) 0213, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0213
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-200213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-wp-200213
    File Function: Persistent link
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.clevelandfed.org/-/media/project/clevelandfedtenant/clevelandfedsite/publications/working-papers/2002/wp-0213-scope-and-scale-economies-pdf.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26509/frbc-wp-200213?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baumol, William J, 1982. "Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Evans, David S & Heckman, James J, 1986. "A Test for Subadditivity of the Cost Function with an Application to the Bell System: Erratum," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 856-858, September.
    3. Wheelock, David C. & Wilson, Paul W., 2001. "New evidence on returns to scale and product mix among U.S. commercial banks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 653-674, June.
    4. Evans, David S & Heckman, James J, 1984. "A Test for Subadditivity of the Cost Function with an Application to the Bell System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 615-623, September.
    5. Bauer, Paul W & Ferrier, Gary D, 1996. "Scale Economies, Cost Efficiencies, and Technological Change in Federal Reserve Payments Processing," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(4), pages 1004-1039, November.
    6. Hancock, Diana & Humphrey, David B. & Wilcox, James A., 1999. "Cost reductions in electronic payments: The roles of consolidation, economies of scale, and technical change," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 391-421, February.
    7. Paul W. Bauer & Diana Hancock, 1995. "Scale economies and technological change in Federal Reserve ACH payment processing," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q III, pages 14-29.
    8. Berger, Allen N. & Hanweck, Gerald A. & Humphrey, David B., 1987. "Competitive viability in banking : Scale, scope, and product mix economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 501-520, December.
    9. Kirstin E. Wells, 1996. "Are checks overused?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 20(Fall), pages 2-12.
    10. Scott E. Knudson & Jack K. Walton & Florence M. Young, 1994. "Business-to-business payments and the role of financial electronic data interchange," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Apr, pages 269-278.
    11. McAllister, Patrick H. & McManus, Douglas, 1993. "Resolving the scale efficiency puzzle in banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 389-405, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wilko Bolt & David B. Humphrey, 2005. "Public Good Aspects of TARGET: Natural Monopoly, Scale Economies, and Cost Allocation," DNB Working Papers 036, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    2. Gilbert, R. Alton & Wheelock, David C. & Wilson, Paul W., 2004. "New evidence on the Fed's productivity in providing payments services," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2175-2190, September.
    3. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2008:i:013 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Bolt, Wilko & Humphrey, David, 2005. "Public good issues in TARGET: natural monopoly, scale economies, network effects and cost allocation," Working Paper Series 505, European Central Bank.
    5. Humphrey, David B., 2010. "Retail payments: New contributions, empirical results, and unanswered questions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1729-1737, August.
    6. Beijnen, Christine & Bolt, Wilko, 2009. "Size matters: Economies of scale in European payments processing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 203-210, February.
    7. Robert DeYoung & Douglas Evanoff & Philip Molyneux, 2009. "Mergers and Acquisitions of Financial Institutions: A Review of the Post-2000 Literature," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 87-110, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adams, Robert M & Bauer, Paul W & Sickles, Robin C, 2004. "Scale Economies, Scope Economies, and Technical Change in Federal Reserve Payment Processing," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(5), pages 943-958, October.
    2. Gilbert, R. Alton & Wheelock, David C. & Wilson, Paul W., 2004. "New evidence on the Fed's productivity in providing payments services," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2175-2190, September.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Demsetz, Rebecca S. & Strahan, Philip E., 1999. "The consolidation of the financial services industry: Causes, consequences, and implications for the future," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 135-194, February.
    4. Joanna Stavins & Paul Bauer, 1999. "The Effect of Pricing on Demand and Revenue in Federal Reserve ACH Payment Processing," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 27-45, September.
    5. Zhang, Jingfang & Malikov, Emir, 2022. "Off-balance sheet activities and scope economies in U.S. banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. Zhang, Jingfang & Hartarska, Valentina & Malikov, Emir, 2021. "Product and geographic market diversification in U.S. banking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    7. Harimaya, Kozo, 2018. "The effects of consolidation on bank cost savings: Evidence from Japanese regional banks," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 41-49.
    8. Yingzhuo Yu & Cesar Escalante & Xiaohui Deng & Jack Houston & Lewell Gunter, 2011. "Analysing scale and scope specialization efficiencies of US agricultural and nonagricultural banks using the Fourier flexible functional form," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(15), pages 1103-1116.
    9. Glass, Anthony J. & Kenjegaliev, Amangeldi & Kenjegalieva, Karligash, 2020. "Spatial scale and product mix economies in U.S. banking with simultaneous spillover regimes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(2), pages 693-711.
    10. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Barham, Bradford, 2007. "On the Microeconomics of Diversification under Uncertainty and Learning," Staff Paper Series 515, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    11. Eder, Andreas, 2017. "Cost efficiency and economies of diversification of biogas-fuelled cogeneration plants in Austria: a nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 80369, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Emir Malikov & Diego Restrepo-Tobón & Subal Kumbhakar, 2015. "Estimation of banking technology under credit uncertainty," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 185-211, August.
    13. Eder, Andreas, 2018. "Measuring and decomposing economies of diversification: An application to biogas-fuelled cogeneration plants in Austria," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 421-432.
    14. Malikov, Emir & Hartarska, Valentina, 2018. "Endogenous scope economies in microfinance institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 162-182.
    15. Joanna Stavins, 2002. "Effect of consumer characteristics on the use of payment instruments," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Q 3, pages 19-31.
    16. Allen N. Berger, 2000. "The integration of the financial services industry: where are the efficiencies?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-36, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    17. Carow, Kenneth A. & Kane, Edward J., 2002. "Event-study evidence of the value of relaxing long-standing regulatory restraints on banks, 1970-2000," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 439-463.
    18. Das, Nibedita, 2000. "Technology, efficiency and sustainability of competition in the Indian telecommunications sector," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 133-154, June.
    19. Hancock, Diana & Humphrey, David B., 1997. "Payment transactions, instruments, and systems: A survey," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(11-12), pages 1573-1624, December.
    20. Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2002. "Exploring efficiency differences over time in the Spanish banking industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 643-664, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Federal Reserve banks - Costs; Payment systems;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: 4D Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbclus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.