The special status, large sizes, and recent rapid growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have created and/or contributed to a set of difficult policy problems that include: misguided and excessive subsidization of housing in the U.S.; the safety and soundness of the two companies; systemic risk;...

We offer and test two competing hypotheses for the consolidation trend in banking using U.S. banking industry data over the period 1982-2000. Under the efficiency hypothesis, technological progress improved the performance of large, multimarket firms relative to small, single-market firms,...

The informational opacity of small businesses makes them an interesting area for the study of banks' lending practices and procedures. We use a survey of small businesses conducted by the Federal Reserve to analyze the micro-level differences between large banks and small banks in the loan...

In this paper we examine the lending by small banks to small farms. We find that relationships, as measured by the length of tenure of farm operators, are positively related to bank lending. We also find that denovo banks have a positive tendency to lend to small farms, similar to the tendency...

We study the effects of structural changes in banking markets on the supply of credit to small businesses. Specifically, we examine whether bank mergers and acquisitions (Mamp;As) and entry have quot;externalquot; effects on small business loans by other banks in the same local markets. The...

Accounting has been a lead sector in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations to reduce barriers to trade in professional services. This is no accident. Accounting already has a substantial international component; the largest accounting firms have major international...

The extent and structure of non-banking activities for commercial banks has been a long-standing policy concern for the United States. Recently, three alternative models for the undertaking of non-traditional activities -- the universal bank, the separate subsidiary of the holding company, and...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are unique and controversial participants in the housingfinance system of the United States. Because of these enterprises' federal government charters, the financial markets believe that the government would not allow Fannie and Freddie to fail to honor their debt...