The Dodd-Frank Act created differential regulatory requirements for banks above specified asset size thresholds. Event study results imply greater expected net regulatory costs for above-threshold banks. Consistent with hypotheses that near-below-threshold banks alter their behavior to attempt...

Size threshold-based regulatory requirements are pervasive, but little is known about how they affect the merger and acquisition (M&A) behavior of firms around the thresholds. M&As cause discrete increases in size, so we hypothesize changes in firms' M&A behavior near regulatory size thresholds....