The informational opacity of small businesses makes them an interesting area for the study of banks' lending practices and procedures. We use a survey of small businesses conducted by the Federal Reserve to analyze the micro-level differences between large banks and small banks in the loan...

The informational opacity of small businesses makes them an interesting area for the study of banks' lending practices and procedures. We use data from a survey of small businesses to analyze the micro-level differences in the loan-approval processes of large and small banks. We provide evidence...

We offer and test two competing hypotheses for the consolidation trend in banking using U.S. banking industry data over the period 1982-2000. Under the efficiency hypothesis, technological progress improved the performance of large, multimarket firms relative to small, single-market firms,...

We study the effects of structural changes in banking markets on the supply of credit to small businesses. Specifically, we examine whether bank mergers and acquisitions (Mamp;As) and entry have quot;externalquot; effects on small business loans by other banks in the same local markets. The...

Recent widespread consolidation in the banking industry has elicited concern that lending to small businesses will be reduced by the banking industry. The consolidation, though, has stimulated an upsurge in new bank charters. This study compares the lending by de novo banks to small businesses...

This paper address the relationship between the aging process at new and relatively young banks and the tendency of banks to make loans to small businesses. Defining small business loans as Camp;I loans that are under $1 million in size, we analyze a sample of banks that had assets of less than...

We study the dynamics of market entry following mergers and acquisitions (Mamp;As), and the behavior of recent entrants in supplying output that might be withdrawn by the consolidating firms. The data, drawn from the banking industry, suggests that Mamp;As are associated with subsequent...

In this paper we examine the lending by small banks to small farms. We find that relationships, as measured by the length of tenure of farm operators, are positively related to bank lending. We also find that denovo banks have a positive tendency to lend to small farms, similar to the tendency...