When Broadband Comes to Banks: Credit Supply, Market Structure, and Information Acquisition
利用意大利信贷登记数据，研究发现宽带互联网使银行分行增加贷款供给、降低利率，并通过改善贷后信息获取和监控来扩大信贷、拓展地理范围并降低市场集中度。
Abstract This paper studies how broadband internet affects bank credit supply to non-financial firms. We rely on loan-level data from the Italian Credit Register and quasi-experimental variation in the diffusion of broadband. Our estimates include firm-time fixed effects to control for the effect of broadband on firm demand. We find that branches in municipalities reached by fast internet increase loan supply and reduce interest rates. Fast internet is used to acquire additional information on borrowers after loan origination, improving monitoring. This, in turn, drives credit expansion through increased branch efficiency, broader geographical reach, and reduced local market concentration.