Theory offers conflicting predictions on whether and how lenders' sectoral specialization would affect firms' innovation activities. We show that the sign and magnitude of this effect vary with the degree of "asset overhang" across sectors, which is the risk that a new technology has negative...

We empirically examine the impact of bank consolidation on bank acquisition of soft information about borrowers. Using a dataset of small business financing, we find that mergers of small banks have a negative impact on soft information acquisition, whereas mergers of large banks have no impact....

We propose a worldwide-based loan portfolio to measure banks’ sectoral concentration that features prominently in episodes of bank specialization. We use the banks’ real loan allocation worldwide instead of the in-sample data to compute a bank specialization. We find that firms borrowing...

The percentage of out-of-market loan originations to small businesses, as measured by both amounts and number, have been trending upward over the past two decades. The percentage of out-of-market loan originations to small businesses, as measured by both amounts and number, declined when...

We find that competition from payday lenders leads depository institutions to raise overdraft fees and reduce the availability of “free” checking accounts. We attribute this rise in prices partly to adverse selection created by banks’ practice of charging a flat fee regardless of the...

This paper analyzes the importance of retail consumers' banking relationships for loan defaults using a unique, comprehensive dataset of over one million loans by savings banks in Germany. We find that loans of retail customers, who have a relationship with their savings bank prior to applying...

Recent regulatory efforts aim at lowering the cyclicality of bank lending because of its potential detrimental effects on financial stability and the real economy. We investigate the cyclicality of SME lending by local banks with vs. without a public mandate, controlling for location, size, loan...

This paper analyzes the importance of retail consumers' banking relationships for loan defaults using a unique, comprehensive dataset of over one million loans by savings banks in Germany. We find that loans of retail customers, who have a relationship with their savings bank prior to applying...

Partial credit guarantees are among the most important interventions designed to improve financial opportunities to small- and medium-size entrepreneurs (SMEs). Here, a third party, usually the government, guarantees the repayment to the lender in the event that the borrower defaults. Almost 100...