Search Results

(refine search)

SORT BY: PREVIOUS / NEXT

All:
Title:
Author:
Abstract:
Keywords:

+ Add Search Parameter

Speech
Longer-Run Trends and the U.S. Economy
Mester, Loretta J. (2023-05-16)
Current trends point to slow long-run growth for the U.S. economy. But steps can be taken to address some of the factors underlying these trends in order to improve the economic health of individuals and communities and to maintain and enhance our future standard of living. Government policies, if they are well-designed and focused on spurring productive investments in human and physical capital, R&D, and innovation, can lead to higher productivity growth and higher longer-run growth. Ensuring a resilient financial system, through appropriate regulation and supervision that keeps up with ...
Speech

Working Paper
On the profitability and cost of relationship lending
Mester, Loretta J.; Berlin, Mitchell (1997)
The authors provide some preliminary evidence on the costs and profitability of relationship lending by commercial banks. Drawing on recent research that has identified loan rate smoothing as a significant element in lending relationships between banks and firms, the authors carry out a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, the authors derive bank-specific measures of the extent to which the banks in their sample engage in loan rate smoothing for small business borrowers in response to exogenous shocks to their credit risk. In the second stage, the authors estimate cost and (alternative) ...
Working Papers , Paper 97-3

Speech
Fintech, Bigtech, and Financial Inclusion
Mester, Loretta J. (2020-11-09)
Since the beginning of this conference series, the discussions have consistently been very topical, and the agenda for the next two days does not disappoint on that score. The conference will cover many of the hot issues confronting practitioners, academics, and policymakers as financial system innovation proceeds at a rapid pace. Today I will discuss the implications of digitalization for financial inclusion and some steps that need to be taken to ensure that digitalization helps to foster inclusion rather than promote exclusion. The views I will present today are my own and not necessarily ...
Speech

Working Paper
Switching costs and adverse selection in the market for credit cards: new evidence
Gordy, Michael B.; Calem, Paul S.; Mester, Loretta J. (2005)
To explain persistence of credit card interest rates at relatively high levels, Calem and Mester (AER, 1995) argued that informational barriers create switching costs for high-balance customers. As evidence, using data from the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances, they showed that these households were more likely to be rejected when applying for new credit. In this paper, they revisit the question using the 1998 and 2001 SCF. Further, they use new information on card interest rates to test for pricing effects consistent with information-based switching costs. The authors find that informational ...
Working Papers , Paper 05-16

Speech
The Economy and Monetary Policy in Our Challenging Times
Mester, Loretta J. (2020-08-05)
I want to acknowledge the important role that the participants in this conference play in our economy and in society. In recent years, some have questioned whether a liberal arts education offers the same value as it once did, and point to other types of programs that, in their view, better prepare students for the job market. I take the opposite view: to me the value of a liberal arts education has never been clearer. The current pandemic underscores the fact that the future is uncertain. A year ago, I certainly wasn’t imagining we would be in the place we find ourselves today. If we want ...
Speech

Speech
Toward a More Inclusive Labor Market and Stronger Economy
Mester, Loretta J. (2021-02-02)
It is now clear that the adverse effects of the pandemic have not been evenly distributed and there are wide disparities in the recovery across business sectors, geographic areas of the country, and demographic groups. The burdens of the pandemic have been borne by many of the most vulnerable in our economy: lower-income and minority workers and communities; those who do not have the opportunity to work from home; those who don’t have access to reliable telecommunications and internet services or to adequate healthcare; and the smallest of small businesses. Since last spring, Blacks and ...
Speech

Speech
The Outlook for the Economy and Bank Regulation
Mester, Loretta J. (2015-03-30)
Good afternoon. I thank the Ohio Bankers League for inviting me to participate in this year?s economic summit. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with so many leaders from the state?s banking community. I?m glad to be here with my colleague Steve Jenkins, whom many of you know well and who will be speaking later today. It is also great to be in Columbus, where it seems as if the euphoria from The Ohio State University?s national championship isn?t going to wear off any time soon. Today, I will share my views on the outlook for the U.S. economy and monetary policy in 2015. Given ...
Speech , Paper 53

Working Paper
Measuring efficiency at U.S. banks: accounting for heterogeneity is important
Mester, Loretta J. (1996)
Estimates of bank cost efficiency can be biased if bank heterogeneity is ignored. The author compares X-inefficiency measures derived from a model that constrains the cost frontier to be the same for all banks in the nation and a model that allows the cost functions and error terms to differ across Federal Reserve Districts. The author finds that the data reject the single cost function model; X-inefficiency measures based on the single cost function model are, on average, higher than those based on the separate cost functions model; the distributions of the one-sided error terms on which ...
Working Papers , Paper 96-11

Working Paper
Central bank institutional structure and effective central banking: cross-country empirical evidence
Mester, Loretta J.; Hasan, Iftekhar (2008)
Over the last decade, the legal and institutional frameworks governing central banks and financial market regulatory authorities throughout the world have undergone significant changes. This has created new interest in better understanding the roles played by organizational structures, accountability, and transparency, in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of central banks in achieving their objectives and ultimately yielding better economic outcomes. Although much has been written pointing out the potential role institutional form can play in central bank performance, little ...
Working Papers , Paper 08-5

Speech
Financial Stability Framework; Panel Remarks for the International Banking, Economics, and Finance Association and American Economic Association Session, \"Integrating Financial Stability with Monetary Policy\", Allied Social Science Associations Annual Meeting, 01-06-2018; Philadelphia, PA
Mester, Loretta J. (2018-01-06)
I will discuss four topics: the relationship between financial stability and monetary policy, the Federal Reserve?s current framework for assessing and monitoring financial stability risks, an exercise aimed to assess possible policy responses to such risk, and some of the governance issues we face in addressing these risks.
Speech , Paper 90

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Fed in Print

Search Results

FILTER BY year

FILTER BY Bank

FILTER BY Series

FILTER BY Content Type

FILTER BY Author

FILTER BY Jel Classification

FILTER BY Keywords