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Do regulators search for the quiet life? the relationship between regulators and the regulated in banking

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Author Info
Richard J. Rosen
Abstract

In some industries, firms are able to choose who regulates them. There is a long debate over whether regulatory competition is beneficial or whether it leads to a race for the bottom. We introduce another possible issue with regulation. Regulators may take actions intended to minimize the effort they spend on work. Using banking as an example, we test this quiet life hypothesis against other explanations of regulatory behavior. Banks are able to switch among three options for a primary federal regulator: the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC. We examine why they switch and what the results of switches are. We find support for the hypothesis that competition among regulators has beneficial aspects. Regulators seem to specialize, offering banks that are changing strategy the ability to improve performance by switching regulators. There is also evidence that the ability to switch regulators allows banks to get away from an examiner that desires a quiet life. I would like to thank Susan Monaco, Terry Nixon, Greg Udell, and participants in workshops at Indiana University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for comments on the paper. Some of this work was completed while the author was visiting the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or the Federal Reserve System.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-01-05.

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Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-01-05

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Related research
Keywords: Bank examination ; Bank supervision;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Roberta Romano, 1998. "Empowering Investors: A Market Approach to Securities Regulation," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm74, Yale School of Management. [Downloadable!]
  2. Yakov Amihud & Baruch Lev, 1981. "Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 605-617, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Alexander, John C. & Spivey, Michael F. & Wayne Marr, M., 1997. "Nonshareholder constituency statutes and shareholder wealth: A note," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 417-432, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Allen N. Berger & Timothy H. Hannan, 1998. "The Efficiency Cost Of Market Power In The Banking Industry: A Test Of The "Quiet Life" And Related Hypotheses," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(3), pages 454-465, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Malatesta, Paul H., 1989. "The wealth effects of second-generation state takeover legislation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 291-322, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Gorton, Gary & Rosen, Richard, 1995. " Corporate Control, Portfolio Choice, and the Decline of Banking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1377-1420, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Romano, Roberta, 1985. "Law as a Product: Some Pieces of the Incorporation Puzzle," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 225-83, Fall.
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  1. John A. Weinberg, 2002. "Competition among bank regulators," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Fall, pages 19-36. [Downloadable!]
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