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We present evidence from 260,000 online auctions of second-hand cars to identify the impact of public reserve prices on auction outcomes. We exploit multiple discontinuities in the relationship between reserve prices and vehicle characteristics to present causal regression-discontinuity estimates of reserve price impacts. We find an increase in reserve price decreases the number of bidders, increases the likelihood the object remains unsold, and increases expected revenue conditional on sale. We then combine these estimates to calibrate the reserve price effect on the auctioneer's ex ante expected revenue. This reveals the auctioneer's reserve price policy to be locally optimal. ( JEL D44, L11, L62) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article starts with Haslag's (1998) model of the bank's demand for reserves and reformulates it with a cash-in-advance approach for both financial intermediary and consumer. This gives a demand for a base of cash plus reserves that is not sensitive to who gets the inflation tax transfer. It extends the model to formulate a demand for demand deposits, yielding an Mi-type demand, and then includes exchange credit, yielding an M2-type demand. Based on the comparative statics of the model, it provides an interpretation of the evidence on monetary aggregates. This explanation relies on the nominal interest as well as technology factors of the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of federal deficits on Federal Reserve behavior as proxied by changes in the growth rate of the monetary base are analyzed in this study. Multivariate Granger-causality tests are employed in the analysis. The deficit measure that is the focus of the analysis is the change in the real market value of privately held federal debt. The tests indicate that the deficit Granger causes the monetary base. Additionally, concerns for financial market stability, real output, and exchange rate movements in the period of floating rates also affect Federal Reserve behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]