Purpose: The authors investigate the factors affecting the decision of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to do business with either small local banks or large commercial banks. Design/methodology/approach: We combine various data sources on Polish SMEs, including their financial...

This study analyzes the economic consequences of changes in the local bank presence. Using a unique data set of banks, firms and counties in Poland over the period 2009–14, it is shown that changes strengthening the relationship banking model are associated with local labour market...

This article investigates the scale of performance persistence in the Central European banking industry. Contrary to the existing literature, we test not only for the short-term performance persistence but we propose also a novel method of analyzing the long-term persistence. Using an extensive...

In this paper, by employing a novel approach, we study the relationship between bank type and small-business lending in a post-transition country. Using a unique dataset on bank branches and firm-level data, we find that local cooperative banks lend more to small businesses than do large...

The Central European banking industry is dominated by foreign-owned banks. During the recent crisis, for the first time since the transition, foreign parent companies were frequently in a worse financial condition than their subsidiaries. This situation created a unique opportunity to study new...

This study investigates the relationship between politically connected firms and their access to bank financing in a post-communist eras in Poland. Overall, it finds that "recent" political connections do influence access to bank financing and the value of such connections increased during the...

This article investigates the scale of performance persistence in the Central European banking industry. Contrary to the existing literature, we test not only for the short-term performance persistence but we propose also a novel method of analyzing the long-term persistence. Using an extensive...