This paper shows that US banks' increased geographic diversification is an important explanation for the decline of their liquidity buffers from 1976 to the 2008 crisis. Diversified banks also hold more illiquid small business loans, less liquid mortgages, and have higher net liquidity creation....

Using exogenous variation in exposure to hurricanes, this article explores how differently diversified US banks lend during the protracted recovery from a major downturn. Compared to diversified banks, local banks (i) originate a higher share of new mortgage and small business loans in affected...

Using exogenous variation in exposure to hurricanes, this article explores how differently diversified US banks lend during the protracted recovery from a major downturn. Compared to diversified banks, local banks:(i) originate a higher share of new mortgage and small business loans in affected...