Branch Banking and Regional Financial Markets: Evidence from Prewar Japan

Mathias Hoffmann, Tetsuji Okazaki and Toshihiro Okubo
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Tetsuji Okazaki: Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-F-1109, CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: The banking sector in Japan experienced a substantial organizational change in the early twentieth century, including an expansion of branch networks. In this paper, we explore the implications of branch banking in regional economies, using unique bank branch office-level data for four rural regions: Fukushima, Tottori, Kumamoto, and Miyazaki Prefectures. We find that branch banking had a positive scale effect on lending. However, compared with branch offices of banks headquartered in the same municipality, branch offices of banks headquartered in other municipalities, especially in other prefectures, tended to have a lower propensity to issue loans. In particular, branch offices of banks headquartered in urban areas, such as Osaka and Tokyo, tended to collect deposits rather than to lend money through their branch networks, which restricted regional finance.

Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg, nep-his, nep-pay and nep-ure
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http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/research/dp/2019/2019cf1109.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Branch Banking and Regional Financial Markets: Evidence from Prewar Japan (2019)
Working Paper: Branch Banking and Regional Financial Markets:Evidence from Prewar Japan (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:fseres:2019cf1109

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