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...

Much of the discourse about regional andlocal economic development strategiesin the United States over the pasttwenty-five years has looked like asearch for general rules. Very few such rules have emerged,in part because—like all policy debates—there have beenlarge inputs of ideology and...