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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 times between a bank’s headquarters and its branches to proxy for the costs of communicating soft information, we exploit shocks to these travel times—the introduction of new airline routes—to evaluate the impact of within-bank communication costs on small business loans. 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 in-person communications that boost small-firm lending.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Qilin Peng & Wensi Xie, 2020. "Communication within Banking Organizations and Small Business Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(12), pages 5750-5783.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:33:y:2020:i:12:p:5750-5783.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhaa036
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    Cited by:

    1. Gang Wang & Yi Shen, 2023. "Did quantitative easing reduce the borrowing costs of firms? The risk‐taking channel," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 507-536, March.
    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. Adams, Robert M. & Brevoort, Kenneth P. & Driscoll, John C., 2023. "Is lending distance really changing? Distance dynamics and loan composition in small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    4. Liu, Xiaoying & Wang, Yujing & Li, Meng & Gao, Haoyu, 2024. "The importance of speed to corporate financial asset holdings: Evidence from high-speed rail," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Tsapin, Andriy, 2022. "Branch network structure, authority and lending behaviour," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    6. 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.
    7. Mi, Biao & Zhang, Luqiao & Han, Liang, 2025. "Balancing acts: Bank market deregulation and the dynamics of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Allen N. Berger & Christa H. S. Bouwman & Lars Norden & Raluca A. Roman & Gregory F. Udell & Teng Wang, 2024. "Piercing through Opacity: Relationships and Credit Card Lending to Consumers and Small Businesses during Normal Times and the COVID-19 Crisis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(2), pages 484-551.
    10. Wen, Huiyu & Wang, Hui & Zhao, Danni & Gao, Haoyu, 2024. "Does high-speed rail boost local bank performance? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 641-658.
    11. Li, Donghui & Li, Yuan & Yuan, Chun, 2025. "Broadband policy and bank loans," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    12. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Alberto Zazzaro, 2025. "Organizational Monitoring Costs And Loan Contract Standardization," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 194, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    13. Xu, Xiaofang & Wan, Qi & Ma, Jingru & Peng, Qilin, 2025. "What drives institutional investors' site visit decisions: The role of local business environment in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    14. 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.
    15. 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).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis

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