Essays in Financial Intermediation

Abstract

This dissertation contains three essays on how differences among financial intermediaries affect the provision of financial services. The first essay, "Bank Consolidation and Financial Inclusion," focuses on deposit-taking and identifies the adverse effects of bank consolidation on lower-income depositors through the higher deposit account fees larger banks charge. In the second essay, "Large Banks and Small Firm Lending," Victoria Ivashina, Ryan D. Taliaferro and I examine the large and persistent shift in the composition of lenders to small businesses following the housing market crash in 2007. In the third essay, "Risk, Lending, and Organizational Form," I focus on mortgage lending and investigate how differences in organizational form drive both risk-taking during the real estate boom and subsequent performance after the real estate market crash.