This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk-assessment and lending decisions. We first show that, while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable lending, their power is muted...

We conduct an experiment with commercial bank loan officers to test how performance compensation affects risk-assessment and lending. High-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable lending decisions. This effect is, however, muted by deferred compensation and...

In this paper we investigate the implications of providing loan officers with a compensation structure that rewards loan volume and penalizes poor performance versus a fixed wage unrelated to performance. We study detailed transaction information for more than 45,000 loans issued by 240 loan...

This paper investigates how lending relationships attenuate the conflict of interest between creditors and shareholders that arises from CEO compensation contracts. We find that lending relationships mitigate the influence of CEO risk-taking incentives on loan spreads, especially for...

Relative performance evaluation (RPE) intensifies competitive pressure by tying executive compensation to the profits of rivals. We show that these contracts make loan syndication harder by reducing banks’ willingness to participate in loans underwritten by banks named in their RPE contracts....

This paper studies whether banks charge higher or lower interest rates on loans to firms with overconfident CEOs. It establishes a theoretical model to show the relationship between the loan rate and overconfidence of the borrowing firm's CEO. It also conducts empirical analyses to test the...

This paper studies whether banks charge higher or lower interest rates on loans to firms with overconfident CEOs. It establishes a theoretical model to show the relationship between the loan rate and overconfidence of the borrowing firm's CEO. It also conducts empirical analyses to test the...

This study investigates the effect of bank ownership on lending and firm investment efficiencies to give reasons for the mixed evidence that exists on the impact of bank ownership on firm performance. Using China's listed firms as an example, we find that bank ownership reduces the efficiency of...

Sectoral loan concentration is an important factor in bank performance. We develop a measure of sectoral loan concentration and study how community bank performance and the size-performance relationship vary with loan concentration and changes in loan concentration. The size-profitability...

The aim of the paper is twofold. First of all, it highlights some weak points of the new reform of the Italian cooperative credit banks (i.e. the Law 08 April, 2016). Furthermore, after a sectioning of the cooperative credit trends during recent years, it aims to emphasize a possible risk of the...