We study the decisions of state-chartered banks to join the Fed in its first decade. Ours is the first study to combine state regulatory environment characteristics and individual bank characteristics to explain Fed membership choice. Regulatory environments that reduced the benefit of discount window access or increased the regulatory cost of joining the Fed led to fewer banks joining. Individual bank characteristics that affected the magnitude of benefits from accessing the discount window (either passing on liquidity risk reduction to respondents or reducing the member bank’s own seasonal liquidity risk) were even more important in determining which banks joined.

I believe that, through the Federal Reserve Banks, … the better shall we be equipped to cope with the problems ahead of us, of helping ourselves and of helping the world; I believe it to be the duty of every bank in the country to contribute its share in equipping our nation for this task; … I firmly believe that the future will belong to those banks—national or state—that are members of the Federal Reserve System.

—Paul Warburg, Speech at the New York State Bankers’ Association Convention, 9 June 1916

我们研究了国有特许银行在美联储成立的第一个十年中加入美联储的决定。我们的研究是第一个结合州监管环境特征和个体银行特征来解释美联储成员选择的研究。减少贴现窗口的好处或增加加入美联储的监管成本的监管环境导致更少的银行加入。影响进入贴现窗口收益幅度的个别银行特征（将流动性风险降低传递给受访者或降低成员银行自身的季节性流动性风险）在确定哪些银行加入时更为重要。

我相信，通过联邦储备银行，……我们能够更好地应对摆在我们面前的问题，帮助我们自己和帮助世界；我相信全国每家银行都有责任为使我们的国家完成这项任务而贡献自己的一份力量；……我坚信，未来将属于那些作为联邦储备系统成​​员的银行——国家银行或州银行。

——Paul Warburg，1916 年 6 月 9 日在纽约州银行家协会大会上的演讲