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CARBÓ VALVERDE S., HUMPHREY D. B. and RODRÍGUEZ FERNÁ NDEZ F. (2003)Deregulation, bank competition and regional growth, Reg. Studies 37, 227-237. Cross-country studies suggest that countries with greater financial sector competition have higher rates of economic growth. However, it is difficult to 'hold constant' different legal and cultural environments in these analyses, leading some to suggest that this relationship is due less to competition than to differing legal and cultural conditions which favour economic growth. As these differences are small within a country, an interregional analysis may reflect better the relationship between financial market competition and growth. We study five large regions in Spain over 1986-98. Using different indicators of market competition, we analyse changes in regional competition and growth. Granger-causality tests show that differences in competition are not associated with improved regional growth. Although deregulation raised deposit rates and lowered loan rates, these benefits have not markedly influenced regional growth. The positive relationship shown between competitive markets and growth in cross-country studies may instead be due to some unspecified third factor that influences both. DeregulationMarket

We study the impact of reductions in interchange fees on payment card services. We find that consumer and merchant acceptance and transaction volumes increased when interchange fees were reduced. Our results suggest that a 10 percent reduction in the rate of decline per quarter in the average interchange fee by an acquirer resulted in a rate of increase in merchant acceptance per quarter of up to 1.4 percent. Additionally, a 10 percent increase in the rate of interaction of merchant acceptance and the total number of cards increased the rate of quarterly issuer transaction volumes up to 1.7 percent.

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