IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v16y2023i10p451-d1263297.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Public Corruption Affect Bank Failures? Evidence from the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Serkan Karadas

    (College of Business and Management, University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL 62703, USA)

  • Nilufer Ozdemir

    (Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA)

Abstract

Corruption influences firm behavior and performance even in relatively transparent countries like the United States. In this paper, we examine whether corruption at the state level affected bank failures during the subprime mortgage crisis. Our measure of corruption is the number of corruption convictions of government employees (adjusted for population) based on the Public Integrity Section (PIN) reports from the Department of Justice, capturing the degree of “public corruption” in the US. After disaggregating the data based on bank size and geography, we find that corruption is associated with more bank failures for smaller banks and fewer bank failures for banks located in the South. This research marks a pioneering attempt to examine the connection between corruption and bank failures while underscoring the significance of political risk for financial institutions. Given the recent setbacks experienced by Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank, this research provides valuable recommendations for policymakers. The findings suggest the need for regulators to mandate greater transparency regarding banks’ exposure to undisclosed risks, such as political risk. It also advocates for implementing internal control mechanisms to curb corrupt activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Serkan Karadas & Nilufer Ozdemir, 2023. "Does Public Corruption Affect Bank Failures? Evidence from the United States," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:16:y:2023:i:10:p:451-:d:1263297
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/16/10/451/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/16/10/451/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2005. "Liquidity Shortages and Banking Crises," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 615-647, April.
    2. Douglas W. Diamond & Philip H. Dybvig, 2000. "Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 24(Win), pages 14-23.
    3. Craig O. Brown & I. Serdar Dinç, 2005. "The Politics of Bank Failures: Evidence from Emerging Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1413-1444.
    4. Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev & Tong, Hui, 2016. "Bank size, capital, and systemic risk: Some international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(S1), pages 25-34.
    5. Alexander W. Butler & Larry Fauver & Sandra Mortal, 2009. "Corruption, Political Connections, and Municipal Finance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2673-2705, July.
    6. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Kermani, Amir & Kwak, James & Mitton, Todd, 2016. "The value of connections in turbulent times: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 368-391.
    7. Davison, Lee K. & Ramirez, Carlos D., 2014. "Local banking panics of the 1920s: Identification and determinants," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 164-177.
    8. Igan, Deniz & Lambert, Thomas & Wagner, Wolf & Zhang, Eden Quxian, 2022. "Winning connections? Special interests and the sale of failed banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    9. Duchin, Ran & Sosyura, Denis, 2012. "The politics of government investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 24-48.
    10. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2005. "Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1371-1411.
    11. Allen N. Berger & Christa H. S. Bouwman, 2009. "Bank Liquidity Creation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3779-3837, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kang, Shulong & Dong, Jianfeng & Yu, Haiyue & Cao, Jin & Dinger, Valeriya, 2021. "City commercial banks and credit allocation: Firm-level evidence," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2021, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    2. Jackowicz, Krzysztof & Kozłowski, Łukasz & Podgórski, Błażej & Winkler-Drews, Tadeusz, 2020. "Do political connections shield from negative shocks? Evidence from rating changes in advanced emerging economies," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Kang, Shulong & Dong, Jianfeng & Yu, Haiyue & Cao, Jin & Dinger, Valeriya, 2021. "City commercial banks and credit allocation : Firm-level evidence," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2021, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    4. repec:zbw:bofitp:2021_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Turk-Ariss, Rima & Weill, Laurent, 2013. "Does excessive liquidity creation trigger bank failures?," BOFIT Discussion Papers 2/2013, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    6. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Turk-Ariss, Rima & Weill, Laurent, 2013. "Does excessive liquidity creation trigger bank failures?," BOFIT Discussion Papers 2/2013, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    7. Zuzana Fungacova & Ms. Rima A Turk & Laurent Weill, 2015. "High Liquidity Creation and Bank Failures: Do They Behave Differently?," IMF Working Papers 2015/103, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Zhang, Xingmin & Fu, Qiang & Lu, Liping & Wang, Qingyu & Zhang, Shuai, 2021. "Bank liquidity creation, network contagion and systemic risk: Evidence from Chinese listed banks," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. repec:zbw:bofitp:2013_002 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Fungacova, Zuzana & Turk, Rima & Weill, Laurent, 2021. "High liquidity creation and bank failures," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    11. Lammertjan Dam & Michael Koetter, 2011. "Bank bailouts, interventions, and moral hazard," Proceedings 1131, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    12. Pablo Federico, 2012. "Developing an Index of Liquidity-Risk Exposure: An Application to Latin American and Caribbean Banking Systems," Research Department Publications 4811, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    13. Ilona Babenko & Viktar Fedaseyeu & Song Zhang, 2017. "Executives In Politics," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1762, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    14. Janbaz, Mehdi & Hassan, M. Kabir & Floreani, Josanco & Dreassi, Alberto & Jiménez, Alfredo, 2022. "Political risk in banks: A review and agenda," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Christina Bui, 2018. "Bank Regulation and Financial Stability," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 5-2018.
    16. Anne-Laure Delatte & Adrien Matray & Noémie Pinardon-Touati, 2020. "Private Credit Under Political Influence: Evidence from France," Working Papers 2020-56, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    17. Matthieu Chavaz & Andrew K Rose, 2019. "Political Borders and Bank Lending in Post-Crisis America," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(5), pages 935-959.
    18. Albuquerque, Rui & Lei, Zicheng & Rocholl, Jörg & Zhang, Chendi, 2020. "Citizens United vs. FEC and corporate political activism," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    19. Bonfim, D. & Kim, M., 2012. "Liquidity Risk in Banking : Is there Herding?," Other publications TiSEM 6e6df5ea-401b-49a2-b1be-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Alan D. Jagolinzer & David F. Larcker & Gaizka Ormazabal & Daniel J. Taylor, 2020. "Political Connections and the Informativeness of Insider Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 1833-1876, August.
    21. Chatterjee, Ujjal K., 2015. "Bank liquidity creation and asset market liquidity," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 139-153.
    22. Colin P. Green & Swarnodeep Homroy, 2022. "Incorporated in Westminster: Channels and Returns to Political Connection in the United Kingdom," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 377-408, April.

    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:gam:jjrfmx:v:16:y:2023:i:10:p:451-:d:1263297. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.