Delegated Monitoring and Bank Structure in a Finite Economy

JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION Vol 4 No 2

Posted: 10 Oct 1998

See all articles by Andrew Winton

Andrew Winton

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management; Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) - Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF)

Abstract

When banks act as delegated monitors of borrowing firms in a finite economy, two factors help banks dominate direct lending: portfolio diversification, which increases with bank size, and bank capitalization, which diminishes with size. With free entry into banking, intermediated equilibria are possible even when direct lending cannot overcome autarky. There are usually multiple intermediated equilibria; these may not be Pareto-ranked by bank size, since smaller banks are better capitalized and may Pareto-dominate larger banks. Even when one large bank would be most efficient, assigning a monopoly bank charter to coordinate beliefs on the single bank equilibrium may be unattractive: in some cases, a monopoly bank cannot overcome autarky even though free-entry banking can, and in other cases, the monopoly bank reduces production from the direct lending level.

JEL Classification: G21, L13, O16

Suggested Citation

Winton, Andrew, Delegated Monitoring and Bank Structure in a Finite Economy. JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION Vol 4 No 2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6447

Andrew Winton (Contact Author)

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management ( email )

321 19th Avenue South
Department of Finance
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States
612-624-0589 (Phone)
612-626-1335 (Fax)

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) - Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) ( email )

Shanghai Jiao Tong University
211 West Huaihai Road
Shanghai, 200030
China

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