We study how information sharing between banks influences the geographical clustering of branches. A spatial oligopoly model first explains why branches cluster and how information sharing impacts price competition and equilibrium clustering. With data on 59,333 branches of 676 banks in 22...

Are firms that are managed and owned by females-only appraised differently than those where genders mix at the top? To answer this question we study an instructive sample of 7,467 firms from 22 countries. We find that – when borrowing from banks – firms that are both managed and owned by...

Although policy uncertainty has drawn regulators' attention in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, little is known on how to alleviate its adverse effects. In this paper, we examine the role of political connections in mitigating the detrimental impact of policy uncertainty on banks....