Max Buchs

Research Topic:

Deposit Insurance in the US from the 19th century to today

Thesis:

The history of the US banking system is associated with severe banking failures. One of the most discussed policy instruments to avoid bank failures caused by bank runs is deposit insurance. Several states implemented forms of deposit insurance already in the antebellum period which, however, did not last longer until the Civil War. First in 1933, after the financial crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created. Since then, there have been several adjustments to the design of deposit insurance, especially after a banking crisis. In my research, I want to explore who profited from the deposit insurance coverage level, how that has changed, and how banks reacted to coverage changes. I will mainly use the balance sheet and trading data of banks to analyze them over time. The goal of my research is to draw conclusions about the temporary regulation of deposit insurance by studying the effects, success, and motivation behind it.

Supervisor: Professor Catherine R. Schenk

Background:

I completed my undergraduate degree in business and economics at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), with semesters abroad at Mahidol University (Thailand) and the University of California, Berkeley (US). I wrote my undergraduate thesis about lessons the European Green Deal can draw from the New Deal.

I am a graduate student at Keble College, studying Economic History (MSc).