The Legacy of Deposit Insurance: The Growth, Spread, and Cost of Insuring Financial Intermediaries
Without the Great Depression, the United States would not have adopted deposit insurance. While the New Deal's anti-competitive barriers have largely collapsed become" deeply rooted. This paper examines how market and political competition for deposits raised the level of coverage and spread insurance to all depository institutions. A comparison of the cost of federal insurance with a counterfactual of an insurance-free system shows that federal insurance ultimately imposed a" higher cost but achieved political acceptance because of the distribution of the burden.
Published Versions
White, Eugene N. "The Legacy of Deposit Insurance: The Growth, Spread, and Cost of Insuring Financial Intermediaries". The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Michael D. Bordo, Claudia Golden, and Eugene N.White, Chicago: The Univeristy of Chicago Press, 1998, pp.87-121.
The Legacy of Deposit Insurance: The Growth, Spread, and Cost of Insuring Financial Intermediaries, Eugene N. White. in The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, Bordo, Goldin, and White. 1998
More from NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability, the Bulletin on Health, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports, video lectures, and interviews.
