Economic agents pursue government funds using political connections, but it is sometimes unclear which types of connections and whose connections matter, and which agents have opportunities to benefit. We address these issues for the over one-half-trillion-dollar Paycheck Protection Program...

Conventional wisdom holds that small banks have comparative advantages vis-à-vis large banks in serving small firms, while recent literature suggests this may not be the case. Using a panel of recent US start-ups, we investigate how small bank presence affects these firms in normal times...

We consider how size matters for banks in three size groups: small community banks with assets less than $1 billion, large community banks with assets between $1 billion and $10 billion, and midsize banks with assets between $10 billion and $50 billion. To illustrate the differences between...

SUPERSEDES WP16-15 We consider how size matters for banks in three size groups: banks with assets of less than $1 billion (small community banks), banks with assets between $1 billion and $10 billion (large community banks), and banks with assets between $10 billion and $50 billion (midsize...

[REVISED AUG 2019]We investigate the shrinking community banking sector and the impact on local small business lending (SBL) in the context of mergers and acquisitions. From all mergers that involved community banks, we examine the varying impact on SBL depending on the local presence of the...

We consider how size matters for banks in three size groups: banks with assets of less than $ 1 billion (small community banks), banks with assets between $ 1 billion and $ 10 billion (large community banks), and banks with assets between $ 10 billion and $ 50 billion (midsize banks). Community...

The recent decline in small business lending (SBL) among U.S. community banks has spurred a growing debate about the future role of small banks in providing credit to U.S. small businesses. This paper adds to that discussion in three key ways. First, this research builds on existing evidence,...