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Is There a Diversification Discount in Financial Conglomerates?

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Author Info
Luc Laeven
Ross Levine

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Abstract

This paper investigates whether the diversity of activities conducted by financial institutions influences their market valuations. We find that there is a diversification discount: The market values financial conglomerates that engage in multiple activities, e.g., lending and non-lending financial services, lower than if those financial conglomerates were broken into financial intermediaries that specialize in the individual activities. While difficult to identify a single causal factor, the results are consistent with theories that stress intensified agency problems in financial conglomerates that engage in multiple activities and indicate that economies of scope are not sufficiently large to produce a diversification premium.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11499.

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Date of creation: Aug 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11499

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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. Hamid Mehran & Rene M. Stulz, 2006. "The Economics of Conflicts of Interest in Financial Institutions," NBER Working Papers 12695, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2006. "Banking services for everyone ? Barriers to bank access and use around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4079, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Olivier De Jonghe, 2009. "Back to the basics in banking ? A micro-analysis of banking system stability," Research series 200906-26, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Martin Cihák & Heiko Hesse, 2008. "Islamic Banks and Financial Stability: An Empirical Analysis," IMF Working Papers 08/16, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  5. Ingo Walter & Markus M. Schmid, 2006. "Do Financial Conglomerates Create or Destroy Economic Value?," Working Papers 06-28, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Stijn Claessens, 2009. "Competition in the Financial Sector: Overview of Competition Policies," IMF Working Papers 09/45, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Lili Xie, 2007. "Universal Banking, Conflicts of Interest and Firm Growth," Working Papers 200703, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2007. [Downloadable!]
  8. Carey, Mark & Stulz, Rene M., 2005. "The Risks of Financial Institutions," Working Paper Series 2005-13, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Barth, James R. & Caprio, Gerard, Jr. & Levine, Ross, 2008. "Bank regulations are changing : for better or worse ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4646, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  10. Elsas, Ralf & Hackethal, Andreas & Holzhaeuser, Markus, 2006. "The Anatomy of Bank Diversification," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 1167, University of Munich, Munich School of Management. [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
  13. Mark Carey & Rene M. Stulz, 2007. "Introduction to "The Risks of Financial Institutions"," NBER Chapters, in: The Risks of Financial Institutions, pages 1-26 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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