Banks, Political Capital, and Growth

We show that politically connected banks influence economic activity. We exploit shocks to individual banks’ political capital following close U.S. congressional elections. We find that regional output growth increases when banks active in the region experience an average positive shock to their political capital. The effect is economically large, but temporary, and is due to lower restructuring in the economy, not increased productivity. We show that eased lending conditions (especially for riskier firms) can account for the growth effect. Our analysis is a first attempt to directly link the politics and finance literature with the finance and growth literature. (JEL, D72, E65, G21, G28, O43, O51). Received July 5, 2021; editorial decision January 7, 2022 by Editor Isil Erel. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.