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  4. June 2000
  5. What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?

What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?

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Abstract

We study the monetary-transmission mechanism with a data set that includes quarterly observations of every insured U.S. commercial bank from 1976 to 1993. We find that the impact of monetary policy on lending is stronger for banks with less liquid balance sheets--i.e., banks with lower ratios of securities to assets. Moreover, this pattern is largely attributable to the smaller banks, those in the bottom 95 percent of the size distribution. Our results support the existence of a "bank lending channel" of monetary transmission, though they do not allow us to make precise statements about its quantitative importance.

Citation

Kashyap, Anil, K., and Jeremy C. Stein. 2000. "What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?" American Economic Review, 90 (3): 407-428. DOI: 10.1257/aer.90.3.407

JEL Classification

  • E52 Monetary Policy
  • E44 Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
  • G21 Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages