The first of the three acts of this long, feverish and historic presidential campaign of 2008 is over. The primary season, which stretched from the dead of winter to the end of spring, has finally produced nominees for the two major parties. Now, in the second act, the Republicans and the...

"We analyze the effects of market structure on the branching decisions of three types of depository institution: multimarket banks, single-market banks, and thrift institutions. We argue that additional branches increase quality for an institution's consumers, and examine the interaction between...