discontinuity in the loan approval process of a large bank, the study finds that competing lenders responded to additional loan … financially excluded borrowers, greatly diminishing the profits accruing to the initiating bank. Lenders may therefore underinvest …

the implications for competition and economic growth. The results show that the (sales-weighted) average markup in Romania … environment that is less conducive to competition. A decomposition exercise shows that the increase in aggregate markups has been … ownership. Further, the paper shows that additional productivity dividends are associated with increased competition in Romania …