ظهور فدرال رزرو و بهره وری سیستم پرداخت: مجموعه چک، 1915-1930

This paper investigates whether the services of the Federal Reserve System improved the efficiency of the system in the United States for collecting checks relative to the efficiency of the system used by banks just prior to the formation of the Federal Reserve. There are two types of evidence that the Fed's services improved efficiency. First, the Reserve Banks quickly became major processors of interregional checks, even though banks could have continued to use the prior payments arrangements. The timing of the growth in Reserve Bank collection services was not consistent with the view that banks simply took advantage of a subsidy provided by the Fed. The share of checks collected by the Reserve Banks increased rapidly during the period when the Fed charged banks fees to cover their collection expenses. Second, declines in the ratios of cash to total assets of banks can be attributed to the development of the Fed's check-collection services.