Search Results
Journal Article
Membership structure, competition, and occupational credit union deposit rates
How do occupational credit unions set deposit rates? This article shows that the answer to this question will depend on (i) who actually makes business decisions in credit unions (who is in control), and (ii) whether local deposit market competition is important. It is not obvious who controls occupational credit unions. If the sponsor (the employer) is in control, then loans and deposits are priced to maximize the surplus received by all of the credit union?s current and potential members (those eligible to join). If members are in control, then a group of members with a majority can ...
Journal Article
Voting rights, private benefits, and takeovers
This article analyzes the effects that institutional design of the firm has on the allocation of control over the firm?s assets. The efficient allocation of control is a necessary condition for the optimal allocation of resources. Dynamic efficiency in resource allocation presupposes that control over firms will change hands when a given allocation becomes suboptimal.> Typically, changes in control are brought about through (successful) tender offers or block trades. With regard to takeovers, a firm may have two types of value to consider: First, there is the public value of the firm, which ...
Journal Article
Bank competition and concentration: do credit unions matter?
One interesting aspect of the financial services industry is that for-profit institutions, such as commercial banks, compete directly with not-for-profit financial intermediaries, such as credit unions. In this article, William R. Emmons and Frank A. Schmid analyze the competition between banks and credit unions. Using annual county-level data on banking-market concentration and household participation rates at occupational credit unions for the period between 1989 and 1996, the authors find empirical evidence of two-way competitive interactions between banks and credit unions.
Journal Article
The Tobin tax
Journal Article
Credit unions make friends-but not with bankers
Unable to slow the growth of credit unions by protesting their tax breaks and sponsor subsidies, banks are citing other reasons to bolster their case that the competition has an unfair edge.
Working Paper
Cracks in the facade: American economic and financial structures after the boom
The United States experienced a historic boom during the late 1990s and briefly into the new millennium, highlighted by rapid economic and productivity growth, surging corporate profitability, sustained business investment in many areas, including high technology and telecommunications, and a soaring stock market. Many observers concluded that a "new era" had arrived. Meanwhile, the prestige of the Federal Reserve rose along with faith in the U.S. economy and its stock market. Deflation of the great boom brings with it many unanswered questions. Was there ever really a "new era" in the ...
Working Paper
Do productivity growth, budget deficits, and monetary policy actions affect real interest rates? evidence from macroeconomic announcement data
Real-business-cycle models suggest that an increase in the rate of productivity growth increases the real rate of interest. But economic theory is ambiguous when it comes to the effect of government budget deficits on the real rate of interest. Similarly, little is known about the effect of monetary policy actions on real long-term interest rates. We investigate these questions empirically, using macroeconomic announcement data. We find that the real long-term rate of interest responds positively to surprises in labor productivity growth. However, we do not reject the hypothesis that the real ...
Working Paper
Monetary policy actions and the incentive to invest
The ability of monetary policy actions to affect the private sector's incentive to invest in fixed capital is hotly debated. Whereas a downward shift in the yield curve increases the present value of expected cash flows and should spur investment, lower short term interest rates make delay more desirable. These influences work against each other so the net effect of stimulative monetary policy actions could go either way. This article outlines a simple investment decision rule that captures both effects of changing interest rates. It also clarifies why monetary policy actions that shift the ...
Working Paper
Banks vs. credit unions; dynamic competition in local markets
One interesting aspect of the financial services industry is that for-profit institutions such as commercial banks compete directly with not-for-profit financial intermediaries such as credit unions. In this article, we analyze competition among banks and between banks and credit unions using a dynamic model of spatial competition. The model allows for the co-existence of (for-profit) banks and (not-for-profit) credit unions. Using annual county-level data on banking market concentration and credit-union participation rates for the period 1989-96, we find empirical evidence of two-way ...
Working Paper
Corporate governance and corporate performance
National corporate-governance traditions are distinctive, deeply rooted, and difficult to change. Recent research points to a country's legal traditions and its stage of economic development as important determinants of corporate-governance institutions. Common-law countries tend to provide more explicit investor protections than civil-law countries. Richer countries tend to enforce corporate law more strictly. Broader and deeper financial markets emerge in the presence of strong investor protections, fostering more outside financing and better corporate financial performance. ...