The Effect of the Central Bank Liquidity Support During Pandemics: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic

42 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2020

See all articles by Haelim Anderson

Haelim Anderson

Bank Policy Institute

Jin-Wook Chang

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Adam M. Copeland

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: June, 2020

Abstract

The coronavirus outbreak raises the question of how central bank liquidity support affects financial stability and promotes economic recovery. Using newly assembled data on cross-county flu mortality rates and state-charter bank balance sheets in New York, we investigate the effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on the banking system and the role of the Federal Reserve during the pandemic. We find that banks located in more severely affected areas experienced deposit withdrawals. Banks which were members of the Federal Reserve were able to access central bank liquidity and so continue or even expand lending. Banks which were not members, however, did not borrow on the interbank market but rather curtailed lending, suggesting there was little-to-no pass-through of central bank liquidity. Further, in the counties most affected by the 1918 Influenza, even banks with direct access to the discount window liquidated assets so as to meet large deposit withdrawals, suggesting limits to the effectiveness of the liquidity provision by the Federal Reserve. Finally, we show that the pandemic caused only a short-term disruption on the financial sector. Over the long-term, deposits returned and banks restored their asset portfolios.

Keywords: 1918 Spanish influenza, Pandemics, Financial stability, Bank lending, Economic recovery

JEL Classification: E32, G21, N22

Suggested Citation

Anderson, Haelim and Chang, Jin-Wook and Copeland, Adam M., The Effect of the Central Bank Liquidity Support During Pandemics: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic (June, 2020). FEDS Working Paper No. 2020-050, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3635494 or http://dx.doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2020.050

Haelim Anderson (Contact Author)

Bank Policy Institute ( email )

600 13th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
United States

Jin-Wook Chang

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC DC 20551
United States
202-475-6307 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/jinwookbchang/home

Adam M. Copeland

Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States

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