Research

Working Papers

Keeping Up in the Digital Era: How Mobile Technology Is Reshaping the Banking Sector (JMP)

• BC Brownbag*, BC-BU Green Line Macro Meeting*, Colorado Finance Summit 2022 (Job Market Session)*, MFA 2023*, EFA 2023*, FMA 2024*, Sydney Banking and Financial Stability Conference 2024*, FIRS 2025*.

I hand-collect data on the roll-out of mobile banking apps in the U.S. over the previous decade and pair them with local positive shocks to the importance of mobile services. I find that digital competition among banks increases in response to these shocks. Specifically, small community banks without or with low-quality apps (SCBs) lose deposits and small business lending to nearby larger and better-digitalized banks (LBs). Additionally, I provide evidence of a paradigm shift in local lending practices. While SCBs decrease their branch-based small business lending activities, better-digitalized LBs increase small business lending only in areas where they do not operate branches. A significant gap in local economic growth arises as LBs do not seem able to fully compensate for the decrease in SCB lending under this paradigm shift. 

The Hidden Costs of Financial Services: Consumer Disputes and Financial Restitution

with Rawley Heimer (Arizona State University)

• Treasury-OCC*, FMA 2025*, featured on the Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast.

Financial disputes are a widespread but understudied feature of consumer financial markets. Using confidential data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), we analyze nearly two million consumer complaints filed since 2014, which have led to an average payout of $1,470 per successful complaint. The volume of complaints and total restitution have increased substantially over time, suggesting significant scope for additional compensation. When understanding who secures restitution–and why–we find little evidence that differences across firms systematically drive restitution outcomes. Instead, product complexity and consumer engagement play key roles–consumers with higher income and education (high-SES) are more likely to explicitly request refunds, claim fraud, and submit supporting documentation, making firms more responsive. Leveraging previously unexamined CFPB monitoring reviews, where the agency systematically screens company responses and issues confidential reports highlighting deficiencies, we show that regulatory scrutiny increases restitution but disproportionately benefits high-SES consumers, reinforcing individual-specific mechanisms. Our results highlight the complementary nature of regulatory interventions and suggest that financial sophistication and self-advocacy are critical determinants of consumer redress. 

• This paper subsumes findings from a previous working paper called "The Financial Restitution Gap in Consumer Finance: Evidence from Complaints to the CFPB", which was presented at the MFA 2021*, SFS Cavalcade 2021*, FMA 2021*, EFA 2022*, and on MarketWatch, and the Business Scholarship Podcast.

The Intra-day Stock Return Periodicity Puzzle

with Steven L. Heston (University of Maryland), Robert A. Korajczyk (Northwestern University), Ronnie Sadka (Boston College)

Heston et al. (2010) find puzzling intra-day patterns in stock returns, which are particularly strong at the beginning and end of the trading day. We demonstrate the patterns persist out-of-sample and test several explanatory variables, including trading frictions and proxies for trader type. They jointly explain all the open and midday periodicity, and up to 30% of the closing interval periodicity. Our proxies for institutional trading - changes in lendable shares, VWAP-like trading, and index inclusion - are the most significant explanatory variables. Overall, the results suggest that open periodicity is driven by VWAP trading while close periodicity by market-on-close trading.

Work-in-Progress

Does Social Trust Matter in Banking? Evidence from Community Banks

with Lubomir Litov (University of Oklahoma)

This study investigates the impact of social capital on banking operations and performance. Using data from 2006 to 2018, we examine how varying levels of social capital across U.S. counties affect different types of banks, finding an impact mostly at community banks. We employ a proxy for social capital that exhibits county-year variation: the percentage of tax filings reporting charitable contributions. To address endogeneity concerns and validate the measure, we instrument it with other established yet less-varying proxies for social capital - organ donation rates and high voter turnout - showing consistent results throughout. Our findings reveal that community banks in high-charitable contribution counties experience higher deposit growth, are less likely to exit these markets, and show a greater propensity to lend. This favors underserved businesses, including small businesses and minority- or female-owned enterprises. Conversely, larger banks exhibit opposite or no trends.

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