I am an economist specializing in economic/business/financial history. My work suggests that financial development makes a major contribution to economic growth in modern history.
During the 1790s, European investors began to purchase substantial quantities of U.S. government ... more During the 1790s, European investors began to purchase substantial quantities of U.S. government debt securities and the equity securities issued by American corporations. A number of these securities were listed and traded in markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on market price quotations we compiled for the same American securities in London and New York markets, we ask if these early trans-Atlantic securities markets were integrated, and, if so, when they became integrated. We find little evidence of market integration before 1816, and substantial evidence of it thereafter. Studying information-flow times, we suggest that the advent and expansion of regularly scheduled packet shipping services increased and regularized information flowing from one market to the other, promoting integration. Evidence on lagged market responses to the arrival of information suggests that London prices were more affected by New York prices than vice versa. Our findings suggest that the Feder...
Rapidly changing technology, financial innovation, and increased linkages among the world’s finan... more Rapidly changing technology, financial innovation, and increased linkages among the world’s financial markets pose many challenges for commercial banks, other financial firms and markets, and their public regulators. History suggests, however, that while the challenges we face today may be unique, many are not fundamentally dissimilar from the problems others have faced in the past. For example, regulators now confront the issue of whether and, if so, how to regulate the issuance of private electronic money. In the nineteenth century, the private issuance of banknotes raised a similar regulatory question. A second example is the current problem, for banks, of increased competition from nonbank financial firms and markets that is associated with regulatory and technological change. As Eugene White points out in the first article in this Review, banks faced a similar challenge in the nineteenth century. The twenty-second annual economic policy conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of...
During the 1790s, European investors began to purchase substantial quantities of U.S. government ... more During the 1790s, European investors began to purchase substantial quantities of U.S. government debt securities and the equity securities issued by American corporations. A number of these securities were listed and traded in markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on market price quotations we compiled for the same American securities in London and New York markets, we ask if these early trans-Atlantic securities markets were integrated, and, if so, when they became integrated. We find little evidence of market integration before 1816, and substantial evidence of it thereafter. Studying information-flow times, we suggest that the advent and expansion of regularly scheduled packet shipping services increased and regularized information flowing from one market to the other, promoting integration. Evidence on lagged market responses to the arrival of information suggests that London prices were more affected by New York prices than vice versa. Our findings suggest that the Feder...
Rapidly changing technology, financial innovation, and increased linkages among the world’s finan... more Rapidly changing technology, financial innovation, and increased linkages among the world’s financial markets pose many challenges for commercial banks, other financial firms and markets, and their public regulators. History suggests, however, that while the challenges we face today may be unique, many are not fundamentally dissimilar from the problems others have faced in the past. For example, regulators now confront the issue of whether and, if so, how to regulate the issuance of private electronic money. In the nineteenth century, the private issuance of banknotes raised a similar regulatory question. A second example is the current problem, for banks, of increased competition from nonbank financial firms and markets that is associated with regulatory and technological change. As Eugene White points out in the first article in this Review, banks faced a similar challenge in the nineteenth century. The twenty-second annual economic policy conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of...
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Papers by Richard Sylla