This study analyzes the evolution of competitive conditions in the Italian banking industry using firm-level balance sheet data for the period 1983-1997. Regulatory reform, large-scale consolidation, and competitive pressure from other European countries have changed substantially the banking...

We examine the informational effects of M&As by investigating whether bank mergers improve banks’ abilities to screen their borrowers. By exploiting a dataset in which we observe a measure of a borrower’s default risk which the lenders observe only imperfectly, we find evidence of these...