Does repeated borrowing from the same lender affect loan contract terms? We find that such borrowing translates into a 10 to 17 bps lowering of loan spreads. These results hold using multiple approaches (Propensity Score Matching, Instrumental Variables, and Treatment Effects Model) that control...

We investigate whether the introduction of fixed-price U.S. federal deposit insurance increased the risk-taking of banks. We examine 70 financial institutions and find that banks in general became more risky after the introduction of deposit insurance. However, a subset of well-performing banks...

We show that concentrating bank regulation on bank capital ratios may be ineffective in controlling risk-taking. We propose, instead, a more direct mechanism of influencing bank risk-taking incentives, in which the FDIC insurance premium scheme incorporates incentive features of top-management...

We study the effect of loan portfolio focus vs. diversification on the return and the risk of 105 Italian banks over the period 1993-1999 using data on bank-by-bank exposures to different industries and sectors. We find that diversification is not guaranteed to produce superior performance...

We examine the effects of bank Mamp;As on small business lending. Our methodology permits empirical analysis of the great majority of U.S. bank Mamp;As since the late 1970s -- over 6,000 Mamp;As involving over 10,000 banks (some active banks are counted multiple times). We are the first to...

We study empirically the effect of focus (specialization) vs. diversification on the return and the risk of banks using data from 105 Italian banks over the period 1993-1999. Specifically, we analyze the tradeoffs between (loan portfolio) focus and diversification using a unique data set that is...

This study assesses whether the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) has affected the quantity and quality of information in credit markets. We find that, after Reg FD, borrowing from new lenders was associated with a higher loan spread. We also document that, after Reg FD, (1)...

We study empirically the effect of focus (specialization) versus diversification on the return and the risk of banks using data from 105 Italian banks over the period 1993–99. Specifically, we analyse the trade-offs between (loan portfolio) focus and diversification using a unique data set...

We study empirically the effect of focus (specialization) vs. diversification on the return and the risk of banks using data from 105 Italian banks over the period 1993-1999. Specifically, we analyze the tradeoffs between (loan portfolio) focus and diversification using a unique data set that is...

Tracing the SEC ban on the short selling of financial stocks in September 2008, this paper investigates whether such selling activity before the 2008 short ban reflected financial companies’ risk exposure in the subprime crisis. Evidence suggests that short sellers sold short stocks that had...