What defines the role of public savings banks("Sparkassen") in tackling the socio-ecological challenges related to planetary boundaries, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity? A clear answer to this question is still lacking, in spite of that fact that the German Sparkassen have...

The purpose of this paper is to revive the historical research on the GDR's savings banks. It argues that socialist banks were interesting intermediary organizations which have so far been largely overlooked by financial, economic, and social historians. Hence, sources produced by the socialist...

Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute considerably to Germany's carbon emissions, regional savings and cooperative banks - SMEs' most important financiers - hardly consider this aspect in lending to these businesses. However, given Germany's commitment to climate...

If banks' performance is to be be evaluated against the objectives they actually pursue, assessments of stakeholder-oriented banks should go beyond financial efficiency. Furthermore, also the environment these institutions operate in has to be kept in mind when interpreting levels of managerial...

Purpose: Are board ties among competitors harmful to customers? The prevalent assumption on board ties among competitors is that they harm customer benefits. This study examines the mechanism by which board ties with competitors result in an outcome conducive to customers....

Previous research has documented the importance and persistence of social norms, but there is limited understanding of whether they are capable of changing in the short run. Utilizing data from Sweden and Denmark, this article addresses this gap by testing whether significant local shocks may...

We focus on firms' risk-taking for customers and investigate how this type of risk-taking is influenced by "performance relative to aspiration" (PRA). Specifically, we examine the PRA and project-financing (PF) loan activities of all 79 savings banks in South Korea from 2013 to 2021. Contrary to...

Despite changes in production networks, welfare state institutions or global finance, Germany's growth model still rests on its unique three-pillar banking system with its strong position of public and cooperative banks. This chapter takes a close look at German savings banks and reassesses the...

This briefing paper describes and evaluates the law and economics of institution(al) protection schemes. Throughout our analysis, we use Europe's largest such scheme, that of German savings banks, as paradigm. We find strengths and weaknesses: Strong network-internal monitoring and early warning...

According to Stein and Yannelis (2020), the Freedman's Savings Bank had large positive effects on the wealth, literacy, school attendance, income and business ownership of African Americans within five years of its existence. This appendix lists our concerns about Stein and Yannelis (2020),...

In 1998, the act on mutual savings banks was amended to create a legal basis for auditor designation for certain mutual savings banks in Korea. Also, a series of restructuring processes for the savings banking industry took place in 2011 due to the insolvency of some savings banks. This study...

The failure of the Freedman's Savings Bank (FSB), one of the only Black-serving banks in the early post-bellum South, was an economic catastrophe and one of the great episodes of racial exploitation in post-Emancipation history. It was also most Black Americans' first experience of banking. Can...

This paper aims to assess the impact of the effective and nominal household tax burden on household deposits in Ukrainian banks. We used the effective tax burden, which includes personal income taxes and value-added tax (VAT) paid. We considered changes in Ukrainian tax law from 2003 to 2016,...

In this paper we document and examine unusual fluctuations in the G-Fund, which is one of five funds available in a voluntary federal government employee retirement savings vehicle called the Thrift Savings Plan. The G-Fund is managed as "internally" held debt by the United States Department of...

Although the mobilization of savings is an important function of banks and other financial institutions, there is remarkably little evidence that bears on how and how well the financial sector mobilized household savings in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This paper documents...

This study offers insight into the role of board politicization on the Spanish cajas' performance from a dual perspective. First, we analyze the effect of a new kind of political directors who occupy board seats as representatives of stakeholders outside the public administrations while...

This paper investigates whether minorities always benefit from financial inclusion. We show that the Freedman's Savings Bank, established in 1865 after the Civil War, collected deposits from recently freed enslaved people through an intensive marketing campaign based on coercive language and...

In this paper we document and examine unusual fluctuations in the G-Fund, which is one of five funds available in a voluntary federal government employee retirement savings vehicle called the Thrift Savings Plan. The G-Fund is managed as “internally” held debt by the United States Department...

Using records of the bank accounts of individual depositors, this paper provides a detailed microeconomic analysis of two nineteenth century banking panics. The panics of 1854 and 1857 were not characterized by an immediate mass panic of depositors and had important time dimensions. We examine...

Insbesondere für Sparkassen und andere, relativ kleine regional operie-rende Kreditinstitute stellt der Zinsüberschuss die bei weitem wichtigste Ertragsquelle dar. Dieser bildet sich zum einen durch die am Markt erzielbare Zinsmarge sowie die Bereitschaft zur Fristentransformation, d.h. die...

After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, some bank performance dimensions have been the subject of debate, two of which are bank efficiency and bank risk-taking behavior. The literature on bank efficiency and productivity has grown considerably over the past three decades, and has gained...

This paper evaluates the impact of the introduction of savings groups on poverty, vulnerability, and financial inclusion outcomes in rural Peru. Using a cluster randomized control trial and relying on both survey and administrative records, we investigate the impact of savings groups after more...