A note on reserve requirements and banks' liquidity
本文采用银行中介的融资模型分析准备金要求对存贷利差的影响，发现低于市场利率的报酬会扩大利差但不影响利率水平，并认为准备金要求是次优的过时工具，建议用直接税替代。
Abstract Unlike past literature adopting the loanable funds view, we follow the financing model of bank intermediation in order to analyse the monetary mechanisms relating to reserve requirements and compute banks' margins on their lending and deposit activities. We show that, when remunerated at a rate below the money market interest rate, reserve requirements increase the spread between bank loans and deposits interest rates, without any impact on the level of interest rates. We review and analyse the uses of reserve requirements as a prudential tool and as a monetary policy instrument. We also analyse their use for capital flows management and for de‐dollarization in emerging economies. We argue that reserve requirements are a sub‐optimal and outdated policy tool, and we suggest imposing direct taxes on banks' deposits and loans interest payments, as a more efficient alternative to reserve requirements.