On the uniqueness of community banks

To the public, all banks seem alike. But banking insiders make important distinctions between community banks and all other banks. Policymakers worry that community banks’ unique characteristics threaten their survival in the face of industry consolidation. However, despite dramatic regulatory and technological changes in the industry in the past two decades, community banks have not only survived but often prospered. ; This article explores the differences between community banks and larger banks to discover what makes community banks unique. Large banks engage primarily in transactional banking—the provision of highly standardized intermediation services, such as gathering deposits and extending loans, that require little human input to manage. Community banks, in contrast, typically focus on relationship banking, which requires more human input, more detailed credit evaluation, and localized decision making. ; Examining profit and risk measures for the 1998–2002 period for both community banks and large banking organizations, the authors find evidence that small banks were generally profitable. In all but the smallest size category, community banks have performed as well as, and often better than, large banks in managing net interest margins, aggregate profits, and credit risk. Also, community banks are more likely to adopt Subchapter S tax status, which allows them to avoid direct federal income taxation and pass tax benefits on to shareholders. These institutions typically have relatively higher returns on both equity and assets than larger banks do. Whether community banks will be able to sustain this good performance will depend, the authors conclude, on how well managers find valuable relationship lending niches, invest bank capital, and balance asset quality with growth.Community banks

Evaluating the Long-run Impacts of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on US Domestic Airline Travel

Although the US airline industry began 2001 with 24 consecutive profitable quarters, including net profits in 2000 totaling $7.9 billion, the impact of the 9/11 event on the industry was substantial. Whereas the recession that began in early 2001 signaled the end of profitability, the 9/11 terrorist attacks pushed the industry into financial crisis after air travel dropped 20% over the September–December 2001 period compared to the same period in 2000. Given the decline in domestic air travel, an important question is whether the detrimental impact of the attacks was temporary or permanent. That is, did airline travel return to the trend that existed prior to the terrorist attacks? There are theoretical reasons to the believe that it would not. Economists have long viewed travel-mode choices as the outcome of a comparison of opportunity costs and benefits. Thus, anything that permanently raises the opportunity cost of travel, holding benefits constant, should reduce the level of travel volume. To determine whether air travel was permanently reduced, we use econometric and time-series forecasting models to generate a counter-factual forecast of air travel volume in the absence of the terrorist attacks. These dynamic forecasts are compared to actual air travel levels to determine the impact of the terrorist attacks. The findings suggest that domestic air travel did not return to the levels that would have existed in the absence of the attack

Research in the field of molecular collision phenomena using molecular beam techniques Final report

Aerodynamic molecular beam interactions with solid surface

The potential release of phosphorus in floodplains

In the Illinois River Watershed, there has been growing concern over elevated phosphorus concentrations in the water column. This study evaluated how much phosphorus is contributed from floodplain soils into surface waters, examining the relationship between the flux of phosphorus released and the amount of phosphorus stored in the soil. This was investigated by artificially inundating soil cores from four sites and determining the soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations of the overlying water and the levels of Water and Mehlich-3 extractable phosphorus in the soil. The flux of phosphorus to the overlying water ranged from 0.43 to 6.61 mg m-2 hr-1 within the short-term (16.5-hr incubation) and 0.06 to 1.26 mg m-2 hr-1 over the long term (282.5-hr incubation). Phosphorus flux to the overlying water was significantly correlated with the amount of phosphorus stored in the soil. This study showed that riparian soils with elevated phosphorus content have the potential to release phosphorus when flooded

Generalizations of the Abstract Boundary singularity theorem

The Abstract Boundary singularity theorem was first proven by Ashley and Scott. It links the existence of incomplete causal geodesics in strongly causal, maximally extended spacetimes to the existence of Abstract Boundary essential singularities, i.e., non-removable singular boundary points. We give two generalizations of this theorem: the first to continuous causal curves and the distinguishing condition, the second to locally Lipschitz curves in manifolds such that no inextendible locally Lipschitz curve is totally imprisoned. To do this we extend generalized affine parameters from $C^1$ curves to locally Lipschitz curves.Comment: 24 page