The importance of brick-and-mortar bank offices: evidence from small business and home mortgage lending, 1998-2016

Author(s)Xu, Yichen
Date Accessioned2018-11-26T13:39:45Z
Date Available2018-11-26T13:39:45Z
Publication Date2018
SWORD Update2018-10-17T16:03:42Z
AbstractThis paper studies the effect of bank branch closures on lending in the Digital Age. Previous studies found that bank branch closings have either no effect or small negative impact on small business lending especially in the low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities. However, decisions to close bank branches are not random and are likely related to local business conditions. As a solution to this endogeneity, and building on work by Nguyen (2018), I use mergers between two large banks with no less than $10B in pre-merger assets with overlapping branching networks as a source of exogenous variation. Using instrumental variable methods, I find that branch closures significantly reduce small business lending (22% reduction in total volume) even in areas with alternative local branches. The total volume of mortgage lending is unaffected. These findings contribute to the debate about the importance of relationship lending, suggesting that physical branches will continue to play an important role mitigating informational asymmetries inherently present in small business lending.en_US
AdvisorGorbachev, Olga
DegreePh.D.
DepartmentUniversity of Delaware, Department of Economics
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.58088/fpcn-dr83
Unique Identifier1076270300
URLhttp://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/23925
Languageen
PublisherUniversity of Delawareen_US
URIhttps://search.proquest.com/docview/2130935698?accountid=10457
KeywordsSocial sciencesen_US
KeywordsBank branchesen_US
KeywordsCRAen_US
KeywordsHMDAen_US
KeywordsLendingen_US
TitleThe importance of brick-and-mortar bank offices: evidence from small business and home mortgage lending, 1998-2016en_US
TypeThesisen_US
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