[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/feddwp/1604.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why are big banks getting bigger?

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo T. Fernholz
  • Christoffer Koch
Abstract
The U.S. banking sector has become substantially more concentrated since the 1990s, raising questions about both the causes and implications of this consolidation. We address these questions using nonparametric empirical methods that characterize dynamic power law distributions in terms of two shaping factors ? the reversion rates (a measure of crosssectional mean reversion) and idiosyncratic volatilities of assets for different size-ranked banks. Using quarterly data for subsidiary commercial banks and thrifts and their parent bank-holding companies, we show that the greater concentration of U.S. bank-holding company assets is a result of lower mean reversion, a result consistent with policy changes such as interstate branching deregulation and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. In contrast, the greater concentration of both U.S. commercial bank and thrift assets is a result of higher idiosyncratic volatility, yet, idiosyncratic volatility of parent bank-holding company assets fell. This contrast suggests that diversification through non-banking activities has reduced the idiosyncratic asset volatilities of the largest bank-holding companies and affected systemic risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo T. Fernholz & Christoffer Koch, 2016. "Why are big banks getting bigger?," Working Papers 1604, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:1604
    DOI: 10.24149/wp1604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/research/papers/2016/wp1604.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.24149/wp1604?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hughes, Joseph P. & Mester, Loretta J. & Moon, Choon-Geol, 2001. "Are scale economies in banking elusive or illusive?: Evidence obtained by incorporating capital structure and risk-taking into models of bank production," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 2169-2208, December.
    2. Vasco M. Carvalho & Basile Grassi, 2019. "Large Firm Dynamics and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1375-1425, April.
    3. Thomas Philippon, 2015. "Has the US Finance Industry Become Less Efficient? On the Theory and Measurement of Financial Intermediation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1408-1438, April.
    4. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin & Shenghao Zhu, 2011. "The Distribution of Wealth and Fiscal Policy in Economies With Finitely Lived Agents," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 123-157, January.
    5. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2012. "Do Large Banks Have Lower Costs? New Estimates of Returns to Scale for U.S. Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(1), pages 171-199, February.
    6. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2016. "A Statistical Model of Inequality," Papers 1601.04093, arXiv.org.
    7. Ghossoub, Edgar A. & Reed, Robert R., 2015. "The size distribution of the banking sector and the effects of monetary policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 156-176.
    8. Hubert P. Janicki & Edward Simpson Prescott, 2006. "Changes in the size distribution of U.S. banks: 1960-2005," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 92(Fall), pages 291-316.
    9. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2003. "Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17, pages 159-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. DeYoung, Robert & Torna, Gökhan, 2013. "Nontraditional banking activities and bank failures during the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 397-421.
    11. Nielsen, Lars Tyge, 1999. "Pricing and Hedging of Derivative Securities," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198776192.
    12. Julian di Giovanni & Andrei A. Levchenko, 2012. "Country Size, International Trade, and Aggregate Fluctuations in Granular Economies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(6), pages 1083-1132.
    13. Jeremy C. Stein & Anil K. Kashyap, 2000. "What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 407-428, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kristian S. Blickle & Cecilia Parlatore & Anthony Saunders, 2021. "Specialization in Banking," Staff Reports 967, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2017. "The distributional effects of progressive capital taxes," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 99-112, April.
    3. Ricardo T. Fernholz & Robert Fernholz, 2017. "Zipf's Law for Atlas Models," Papers 1707.04285, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2020.
    4. Bordo, Michael D. & Duca, John V. & Koch, Christoffer, 2016. "Economic policy uncertainty and the credit channel: Aggregate and bank level U.S. evidence over several decades," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 90-106.
    5. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2016. "Empirical Methods for Dynamic Power Law Distributions in the Social Sciences," Papers 1602.00159, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2016.
    6. Dávila, Eduardo & Walther, Ansgar, 2020. "Does size matter? Bailouts with large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 1-22.
    7. Minetti, Raoul & Moreland, Timothy & Kokas, Sotirios, 2021. "Financial Consolidation and the Cyclicality of Corporate Financing," Working Papers 2021-1, Michigan State University, Department of Economics.
    8. Ricardo T. Fernholz & Robert Fernholz, 2016. "A Rank-Based Approach to Zipf's Law," Papers 1602.08533, arXiv.org.
    9. Nguyen, Canh Phuc & Le, Thai-Ha & Su, Thanh Dinh, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and credit growth: Evidence from a global sample," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2016. "Empirical Methods for Dynamic Power Law Distributions in the Social Sciences," Papers 1602.00159, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2016.
    2. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/21q7rlmakq8ca9c6o2imhini9d is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Vasco M. Carvalho & Basile Grassi, 2019. "Large Firm Dynamics and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1375-1425, April.
    4. Inanoglu, Hulusi & Jacobs, Michael, Jr. & Liu, Junrong & Sickles, Robin, 2015. "Analyzing Bank Efficiency: Are "Too-Big-to-Fail" Banks Efficient?," Working Papers 15-016, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    5. Shekhar Aiyar & Charles W. Calomiris & Tomasz Wieladek, 2015. "How to Strengthen the Regulation of Bank Capital: Theory, Evidence, and A Proposal," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 27(1), pages 27-36, March.
    6. Semyon Malamud & Andreas Schrimpf, 2016. "Intermediation Markups and Monetary Policy Passthrough," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 16-75, Swiss Finance Institute.
    7. Fabio Ghironi, 2018. "Macro needs micro," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(1-2), pages 195-218.
    8. Gaubert, Cecile & Itskhoki, Oleg & Vogler, Maximilian, 2021. "Government policies in a granular global economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 95-112.
    9. Bos, J.W.B. & van Santen, P.C. & Schilp, P., 2013. "The importance of reallocation for productivity growth: Evidence from European and US banking," Research Memorandum 056, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    10. Owyang, Michael T. & Piger, Jeremy & Wall, Howard J., 2008. "A state-level analysis of the Great Moderation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 578-589, November.
    11. Giovanni Dosi & Mauro Napoletano & Andrea Roventini & Tania Treibich, 2019. "Debunking the granular origins of aggregate fluctuations: from real business cycles back to Keynes," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 67-90, March.
    12. Chiorazzo, Vincenzo & D'Apice, Vincenzo & DeYoung, Robert & Morelli, Pierluigi, 2018. "Is the traditional banking model a survivor?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 238-256.
    13. Christian Castro & Jorge E. Galán, 2019. "Drivers of Productivity in the Spanish Banking Sector: Recent Evidence," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 115-141, June.
    14. Norhana Endut & James Morley & Pao-Lin Tien, 2018. "The changing transmission mechanism of US monetary policy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 959-987, May.
    15. Olivier Blanchard & Giovanni Dell’Ariccia & Paolo Mauro, 2010. "Rethinking Macroeconomic Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(s1), pages 199-215, September.
    16. Irene Brunetti & Davide Fiaschi & Lisa Gianmoena & Angela Parenti, 2017. "Volatility in European regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(4), pages 697-720, November.
    17. Glenn Magerman & Karolien De Bruyne & Emmanuel Dhyne & Jan Van Hove, 2016. "Heterogeneous Firms and the Micro Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-35, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Hughes, Joseph P. & Mester, Loretta J., 2013. "Who said large banks don’t experience scale economies? Evidence from a risk-return-driven cost function," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 559-585.
    19. Abedifar, Pejman & Molyneux, Philip & Tarazi, Amine, 2018. "Non-interest income and bank lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 411-426.
    20. Calomiris, Charles W. & Nissim, Doron, 2014. "Crisis-related shifts in the market valuation of banking activities," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 400-435.
    21. Leonardo Gambacorta & Adrian van Rixtel, 2013. "Structural bank regulation initiatives: approaches and implications," BANCARIA, Bancaria Editrice, vol. 6, pages 14-27, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bank size distributions; bank structure; dynamic power laws; financial stability; non-bank activities; nonparametric methods; systemic risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:1604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Amy Chapman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbdaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.