This paper shows that bank performance improves significantly after restrictions on bank expansion are lifted. We find that profits increase and loan quality improves after states permit statewide branching, and--to a lesser extent--after states allow interstate banking. The improvements...

The moral hazard problem associated with deposit insurance generates the potential for excessive risk taking on the part of bank owners. The banking literature identifies franchise value--a firm's profit-generating potential--as one force mitigating that risk taking. We argue that in the...

This paper shows that large BHCs are better diversified than small BHCs based on market measures of diversification. We find, however, that better diversification does not translate into reductions in overall risk. The risk reducing potential of diversification at large BHCs is offset by their...

This paper provides evidence that financial markets can directly affect economic growth by studying the relaxation of bank branch restrictions in the United States over the past 25 years. We find that the rates of real, per-capita growth in income and output increase significantly following...

This paper provides a positive political economy analysis of deregulation, focusing on the recent removal of barriers to bank branching. Intra- and inter- state branching restrictions had been in place in most states for more than a century but have largely disappeared during the last 25 years....