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Communication within Banking Organizations and Small Business Lending

Author

Listed:
  • Ross Levine
  • Chen Lin
  • Qilin Peng
  • Wensi Xie

Abstract

We investigate how communication within banks affects small business lending. Using travel time between a bank’s headquarters and its branches to proxy for the costs of communicating soft information, we exploit shocks to these travel times to evaluate the impact of within bank communication costs on small business loans. Consistent with Stein’s (2002) model of the transmission of soft information across a bank’s hierarchies, we find that reducing headquarters-branch travel time boosts small business lending in the branch’s county. Several extensions suggest that new airline routes facilitate the transmission of soft information, boosting small firm lending.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Qilin Peng & Wensi Xie, 2019. "Communication within Banking Organizations and Small Business Lending," NBER Working Papers 25872, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25872
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    Cited by:

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    2. Geng, Chunxiao & Li, Donghui & Sun, Jian & Yuan, Chun, 2023. "Functional distance and bank loan pricing: Evidence from the opening of high-speed railway in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Tsapin, Andriy, 2022. "Branch network structure, authority and lending behaviour," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    4. Chunxiao Geng & Tusheng Xiao & Chun Yuan & Yanan Zhang, 2021. "Follow friends to invest: evidence from the information role of weak ties," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 5999-6035, December.
    5. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2022. "Bank switching of US small businesses: new methods and evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1573-1616, May.
    6. Gao, Haoyu & Li, Jinxuan & Wen, Huiyu, 2023. "Bank funding costs during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Christoph Herpfer & Aksel Mjøs & Cornelius Schmidt, 2023. "The Causal Impact of Distance on Bank Lending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(2), pages 723-740, February.
    8. Allen N. Berger & Christa H. S. Bouwman & Lars Norden & Raluca A. Roman & Gregory F. Udell & Teng Wang, 2021. "Piercing Through Opacity: Relationships and Credit Card Lending to Consumers and Small Businesses During Normal Times and the COVID-19 Crisis," Working Papers 21-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

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