Rich regions, poor regions and bank branch deregulation in Spain

Rich regions, poor regions and bank branch deregulation in Spain. Regional Studies. The links between financial deregulation and economic performance are evaluated in a European context. Specifically, the study analyses the relaxation of bank branching restrictions in Spain, which triggered a remarkable interregional expansion of savings banks that coincided with an unprecedented period of sustained economic expansion. Although related questions have been widely investigated for the United States, experiences in Europe have received far less research attention. An additional contribution of the paper lies in its use of quantile regression, which enables the investigation of the possibility of economic effects taking into account the degree of regional development. The potential endogeneity of some of the regressors is also explicitly considered. Results do not support the case for a positive effect of bank branch deregulation in Spain. Out-of-region entry, in particular, does not seem to have had any specific positive effect on regional development, and this result is quite homogeneous across provinces regardless of their relative wealth.