Monetary Equilibrium and the Cost of Banking Activity
研究了低利率环境下银行运营成本对资源配置和福利的影响，通过引入银行生产函数，发现银行雇佣劳动力导致存贷利差，在通缩或低通胀时存款零收益，降低整体效率。
Abstract We investigate the effects of banks' operating costs on allocations and welfare in a low interest rate environment. We introduce an explicit production function for banks in a microfounded model where banks employ labor resources, hired on a competitive market, to run their operations. In equilibrium, this generates a spread between interest rates on loans and deposits, which reflects the underlying monetary policy and the efficiency of financial intermediation. In a deflation or low‐inflation environment, equilibrium deposits yield zero returns. Hence, banks soak up labor resources to offer deposits that do not outperform idle balances, thus reducing aggregate efficiency.