This paper analyzes how differences in productivity across banks and the evolution of industry productivity over time might determine the intermediation costs and the restructuring process of the banking industry in the Great Recession. With data of Spanish banks, we find that less productive banks are more likely to exit than more productive banks, and that surviving banks acquire target banks in order to expand their branch network in local markets where they are underrepresented. Competition among banks contributes to the translation of industry productivity growth into lower interest rates of loans. Nonetheless, we find that the industry profit margin in loans increases during the period because of the modest industry productivity growth and the lower intensity of competition from branch closing.

中文翻译：

---

生产力，竞争和银行重组流程

本文分析了银行间生产率的差异以及行业生产率随时间的变化如何决定大萧条时期银行业的中介成本和重组过程。根据西班牙银行的数据，我们发现生产力较低的银行比生产力较高的银行更有可能退出，而幸存的银行收购目标银行是为了扩大其在代表性不足的本地市场的分支机构网络。银行之间的竞争有助于将行业生产率的增长转化为较低的贷款利率。尽管如此，我们发现由于行业生产率的适度增长和分支机构关闭带来的竞争强度降低，该期间的行业贷款利润率有所提高。