Because California was a pioneer in the development of intrastate branching, we use its experience during the 1920s and … 1930s to assess the effects of the expansion of large-scale, branch-banking networks on competition and the stability of … banks responded to increased competition from branch banks by changing their operations in ways consistent with efforts to …

findings. Using data on national banks from the 1920s and 1930s, we show that branch banking increases competition and forces … strengthening the branch banks themselves. Our empirical results suggest that the effects that branching had on competition were …