-in-differences design, and a sample of 596 banks (17,783 bank-year proposals), we are the first to provide large-sample, systematic evidence … further document that the relation between the two is more pronounced among states with higher degrees of deregulation and … weaker levels of pre-deregulation competition. Overall, our findings are consistent with the notion that increased …

We study the effect of bank merger deregulation on market structure and wages in the banking industry. We show that … state deregulation of bank mergers and acquisitions increased the market share of large, multi-state banks and lowered wages … for bank workers by up to 8 percentage points, with wage reductions occurring uniformly across the wage distribution …