Search Results
Working Paper
The effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency
We assess the effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency using cost and profit efficiency for over 7,000 U.S. banks, 1993-1998. We find that parent organizations exercise some control over the efficiency of their affiliates, although this control tends to dissipate with distance to the affiliate. However, on average, distance-related efficiency effects tend to be modest, suggesting that some efficient organizations can overcome any effects of distance. The results imply there may be no particular optimal geographic scope for banking organizations - some may operate efficiently within ...
Working Paper
Problem loans and cost efficiency in commercial banks
This paper addresses a little-examined intersection between the problem-loan literature and the bank-efficiency literature. We employ Granger causality techniques to test four hypotheses regarding the relationships among loan quality, cost efficiency, and bank capital. The data suggest that problem loans precede reductions in measured cost efficiency; that measured cost efficiency precedes reductions in problem loans; and that reductions in capital at thinly capitalized banks precede increases in problem loans. Hence, cost efficiency may be an important indicator of future problem loans and ...
Working Paper
Who's minding the store? motivating and monitoring hired managers at small, closely held firms: the case of commercial banks
We test whether the gains from hiring an outside manager exceed the principal-agent costs of owner-manager separation at 266 small, closely held U.S. commercial banks. Our results suggest that hiring an outside manager can improve a bank's profit efficiency, but that these gains depend on aligning the hired managers with owners via managerial shareholdings. We find that over-utilizing this control mechanism results in entrenchment, while under-utilization is costly in terms of foregone profits. This study provides a relatively unfettered test of mitigating principal-agent costs, because these ...
Conference Paper
Could publication of bank CAMEL ratings improve market discipline?
Journal Article
How do banks make money? a variety of business strategies
In the second of two articles, the authors show that the business strategy chosen by a commercial banking company can have a substantial impact on its risk-return profile. Their analysis suggests that a wide variety of business strategies are likely to be financially viable in the future but, echoing concerns of others, they conclude that very small banking companies will face financial challenges regardless of the business strategy they select
Journal Article
Birth, growth, and life or death of newly chartered banks
Thousands of new commercial banks have been chartered in the U.S. over the past two decades. This article documents how the financial characteristics of new banks evolve over time, develops a simple theory of why and when new banks fail, and tests the theory using a variety of methods.
Working Paper
Learning by observing: information spillovers in the execution and valuation of commercial bank M&As
We hypothesize that banks become better able to manage acquisitions, and investors become better able to value those acquisitions, as these parties ?learn-by-observing? information that spills-over from previous bank M&As. We find evidence consistent with these hypotheses for 216 M&As of large, publicly traded U.S. commercial banks between 1987 and 1999. Our theory and our results are predicated on the idea that acquisitions of large and increasingly complex commercial banks were a relatively new phenomenon in the late-1980s, with no best practices to inform bank managers and little ...
Conference Paper
Portfolio lending decisions at small commercial banks
Working Paper
The effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency
We assess the effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency using cost and profit efficiency for over 7,000 U.S. banks, 1993-1998. We find that parent organizations exercise some control over the efficiency of their affiliates, although this control tends to dissipate with distance to the affiliate. However, on average, distance-related efficiency effects tend to be modest, suggesting that some efficient organizations can overcome any effects of distance. The results imply there may be no particular optimal geographic scope for banking organizations some may operate efficiently within a ...