We examine the effects of competition on bank risk. We find strong evidence that interstate banking deregulation — which generally increases bank competition — is associated with lower bank risk and some evidence intrastate branching increases bank risk. Further, interstate banking reduces...

We examine the effects of geographic deregulation on banks' cost of equity (COE) using changes in interstate bank branching laws over the post–Riegle-Neal period (1994:Q4–2016:Q4). We find strong evidence that deregulation increases banks' COE. This is driven primarily by active acquirers,...

We model dynamic bank capital structure under three optimally-designed regulatory regimes dealing with potential default { bailout, where government provides capital; bail-in, using private-sector funds; and no regulatory intervention, allowing failure. Only under optimally designed bail-in do...

Despite ample research demonstrating many consequences of bank geographic deregulation, the bank capital determinants literature has not directly tested the effects of this deregulation. This paper fills this important research gap. We find strong evidence that geographic deregulation...