Because banks have the potential to bring a variety of benefits to their surrounding neighborhoods, the (often poor) areas that lack them can face even stronger economic challenges. These “banking deserts” might also face reputational costs if they are perceived to lack sufficient wealth or be otherwise unworthy of investment. This study examines bank locations in Chicago in 2018, establishing a set of criteria to identify areas with insufficient bank access. These block groups are shown to be poorer and less white than the city average. Econometric estimation shows that the percentage of block groups’ black and, to a lesser degree, Hispanic populations is negatively related to the number of banks, even when controlling for income. Comparing these findings with bank locations in 2008, this study finds surprisingly little variation in geographic distribution, even though the total number of banks in Chicago fell by more than one fourth. This suggests that limitations in bank access are a persistent problem that precedes both the widespread adoption of mobile banking and the 2008 financial crisis. Key Words: banks, Chicago, geographic locations, socioeconomic characteristics, statistics.

中文翻译：

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芝加哥市的“银行沙漠”、银行分行损失和社区社会经济特征：空间和统计分析

由于银行有可能为周边社区带来各种好处，缺乏银行的地区（通常是贫困地区）可能面临更大的经济挑战。如果这些“银行沙漠”被认为缺乏足够的财富或不值得投资，它们也可能面临声誉成本。本研究调查了 2018 年芝加哥的银行位置，建立了一套标准来确定银行接入不足的区域。这些街区组被证明比城市平均水平更穷，白人更少。计量经济学估计表明，即使在控制收入的情况下，街区群体的黑人和西班牙裔人口的百分比与银行数量呈负相关。将这些调查结果与 2008 年的银行所在地进行比较，这项研究发现，尽管芝加哥的银行总数下降了四分之一以上，但地理分布的变化却出人意料地很小。这表明，在移动银行广泛采用和 2008 年金融危机之前，银行访问限制是一个长期存在的问题。关键词：银行，芝加哥，地理位置，社会经济特征，统计。