CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Mák, Viktor |
|---|---|
| Title | Competition and Its Effects on Quality in the Retail Financial Services Sector in the United States |
| Summary | One of the markers of a well-functioning market in consumer financial services is high-quality services and products. Relying on complaint data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a proxy for quality, the paper uses regression analysis to suggest that more competitive markets in the consumer financial service sector are associated with higher quality services and products. The relationship is shown to be robust in checking accounts and mortgages, as well as the overall financial sector. Results also show that competition has an effect on the complaint processing decisions of firms as well, with higher quality responses to complaints in competitive markets. These empirical findings are novel and have policy implications as a new wave of bank mergers is proposed. The thesis highlights the importance of competitive markets in protecting consumer welfare and calculates the rise in complaints that can be expected from the proposed BB&T and SunTrust Bank merger. |
| Supervisor | Dorsch, Michael |
| Department | School of Public Policy MPA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/mak_viktor.pdf |
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