Expense Preference and Minority Banking: A Note

Abstract

Previous research has concluded that, in comparison to nonminority institutions, minority-owned banks have lower profitability and higher operating costs. This note examines such findings in the context of the expense preference theory of managerial behavior. Rather than focusing on the effect of regulated product markets, however, this research investigated whether imperfections in the capital markets, introduced through government deposit programs making low-cost funds available to participating minority banks, were associated with expense preference practices by minority bank managers. The results suggest that managers of minority banks did not practice the traditional forms of expense preference but instead appeared to act in a manner consistent with public policy objectives.

The Curb-Cut Effect and the Perils of Accessibility without Disability

“…45 Connor Scott-Gardner and Alexa Heinrich have identified examples of this phenomenon, including the coopting of alternative text fields initially designed to contain descriptions of images for screen reader users for other material, such as jokes 46 or copyright management information such as photo credits, 47 and aesthetically pleasing ramps that are not actually accessible to wheelchair users, which take the curb-cut effect so far that disabled people are ultimately removed from the calculus altogether. 48 By providing a foundation for writing disabled users in and out of narratives as is convenient for broader political, policy, technical, or economic reasons, the curb-cut effect can ultimately facilitate accessibility law, policy, and innovationin cyberspace as well as the built world-from which disabled people do not benefit (or do not benefit adequately). Put in economic terms, the curb-cut effect can ultimately result in the conversion of accessibility from the primary goal of economic and legal/policy activity-from which positive spillovers for nondisabled people flow-to a spillover itself.…”

Board Composition, Ownership Structure, Geographic Regulation, And Bank Holding Company Expenses

“…Smirlock and Marshall (1983) assert that differences in bank input utilization are better explained by organizational complexity rather than product market structure. Other studies in this vein include Rhoades (1980) and Scott, Gardner and Mills (1988). In general, the evidence on the relative importance of non-competitive, ownership, board and entry barrier effects throughout the structure of bank operating expenses is mixed and scant.…”