In the view of most policymakers and economists,competition in retail banking takes place in localmarkets covering a relatively small geographic area.Banks are thought to design their services and settheir loan and deposit rates in response to the supply anddemand conditions prevailing in a...

[...]This paper studies a simple model of the talent-ownership mismatch — or failure ofmeritocracy — brought about by credit market imperfections that arise as a consequence ofagency problems in the borrower-lender relationship. Our model highlights the interactionbetween the market for...