Big Bad Banks? The Impact of U.S. Branch Deregulation on Income Distribution
41 Pages Posted: 16 Aug 2007
There are 2 versions of this paper
Big Bad Banks? The Impact of U.S. Branch Deregulation on Income Distribution
Date Written: August 2007
Abstract
By studying intrastate branch banking reform in the United States, this paper provides evidence that financial markets substantively influence the distribution of income. From the 1970s through the 1990s, most states removed restrictions on intrastate branching, which intensified bank competition and improved efficiency. Exploiting the cross-state, cross-time variation in the timing of bank deregulation, we evaluate the impact of liberalizing intrastate branching restrictions on the distribution of income. We find that branch deregulation significantly reduced income inequality by boosting the incomes of lower income workers. The reduction in income inequality is fully accounted for by a reduction in earnings inequality among salaried workers.
Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Financial Dependence and Growth
By Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales
-
Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Panel Evidence
By Thorsten Beck and Ross Levine
-
Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Panel Evidence
By Thorsten Beck and Ross Levine
-
Stock Markets, Banks, and Economic Growth
By Ross Levine and Sara Zervos
-
Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda
By Ross Levine
-
Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Correlation or Causality
By Thorsten Beck and Ross Levine
-
By Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, ...
-
Finance, Firm Size, and Growth
By Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, ...
-
Finance, Firm Size, and Growth
By Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, ...
-
Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes
By Ross Levine, Norman Loayza, ...