We investigate how bank migration across state lines over the last quarter century has affected the size and covariance of business fluctuations within states. Starting with a two-state version of the unit banking model in Holmstrom and Triocole (1997), we conclude that the theoretical effect of...

Theory suggests that bank integration (financial integration generally) can magnify or dampen the business cycles, depending on the importance of shocks to firm collateral versus shocks to the banking sector. In this paper, we show empirically that bank integration across U.S. states over the...

We investigate how the better integration of U.S. banks across states has affected economic volatility within states. In theory, the link between bank integration and volatility is ambiguous; integration tends to dampen the impact of bank capital shocks on state activity, but it amplifies the...

<title>Abstract</title> Despite their increasing importance worldwide, community foundations remain rare in much of East Asia. This comparative analysis of three community-based foundations currently operating in Japan, China and South Korea seeks to understand the role they play and factors that promote or...

Banks and other intermediaries may help savers commit to investment plans that savers could not stick to if they held assets directly. We illustrate this commitment function using a version of the Diamond and Dybvig (<CitationRef CitationID="CR9">1983</CitationRef>) model where savers’ short-run liquidity needs are correlated with...</citationref>

The link between financial market concentration and stability is a topic of great interest to policymakers and other market participants. Are concentrated markets - those where a relatively small number of firms hold large market shares - inherently more prone to disruption? This article...