concentrated banking systems tend to have larger, better-diversified banks, which may help account …fragility of banks. Rather, banking system concentration is associated with a lower probability that …institutions that facilitate competition in banking are associated with less -- not more -- banking …

relationship between the market structure of the banking industry and bank fragility, this paper studies the impact of bank … concentration, bank regulations, and national institutions on the likelihood of suffering a systemic banking crisis. Using data on … 70 countries from 1980 to 1997, we find that crises are less likely in economies with (i) more concentrated banking …