Bank Failure, Relationship Lending, and Local Economic Performance

John Kandrac (a former Ph.D. student):

Bank Failure, Relationship Lending, and Local Economic Performance, by John Kandrac, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Finance and Economics Discussion Series: Abstract Whether bank failures have adverse effects on local economies is an important question for which there is conflicting and relatively scarce evidence. In this study, I use county-level data to examine the effect of bank failures and resolutions on local economies. Using quasi-experimental techniques as well as cross-sectional variation in bank failures, I show that recent bank failures lead to lower income and compensation growth, higher poverty rates, and lower employment. Additionally, I find that the structure of bank resolution appears to be important. Resolutions that include loss-sharing agreements tend to be less deleterious to local economies, supporting the notion that the importance of bank failure to local economies stems from banking and credit relationships. Finally, I show that markets with more inter-bank competition are more strongly affected by bank failure. [Download Full text]