Foreign-owned U.S. banks have been chronically unprofitable for more than a decade. We employ a profit efficiency model introduced by Berger, Hancock, and Humphrey (1993), modified to be less sensitive to variations in asset size, to estimate the relative profit efficiency of 62 foreign-owned...

We test whether and how U.S. commercial banks actively managed their liquidity positions between 1992 and 2012, prior to the implementation of the Basel III liquidity rules. On average, the data are consistent with a liquidity management regime in which banks targeted the traditional...

We estimate a structural model of bank portfolio lending and find that the typical U.S. community bank reduced its business lending during the global financial crisis. The decline in business credit was driven by increased risk overhang effects (consistent with a reduction in the liquidity of...

There is general agreement among bank researchers that revenues from fee-based activities are more volatile than revenues from more traditional interest-based (loans and deposits) activities. We test whether noninterest income was a determining factor in the hundreds of U.S. commercial bank...

This study examines whether and how the terms of CEO compensation contracts at large commercial banks between 1994 and 2006 influenced, or were influenced by, the risky business policy decisions made by these firms. We find strong evidence that bank CEOs responded to contractual risktaking...

We develop a conceptual framework that links executive compensation incentives to the external risks and returns generated by the firm but borne by society. Recent advances in measuring liquidity creation (Berger and Bouwman, 2009) and systemic risk (Acharya, et al. forthcoming) allow us to...

We test whether rural versus urban location, and the amount of social capital present in those locations, influence the performance of Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) loans originated between 1984 and 2012. On average, we find that rural loans are about 11% less likely to default than...

Noninterest income now accounts for over 40% of operating income in the U.S. commercial banking industry. This paper demonstrates a number of empirical links between bank noninterest income, business strategies, market conditions, technological change, and financial performance between 1989 and...

Newly chartered banks provide an additional credit source for small businesses, but the staying power of new banks can be weak. A multi-state exit model is estimated for U.S. commercial banks chartered between 1980 and 1985, and for a benchmark sample of small established banks. The determinants...

We assess the effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency, using cost and profit efficiencies estimated for over 7000 U.S. banks from 1993 to 1998. We find both positive and negative links between geographic scope and bank efficiency. Parent organizations exercise some control over the...