In recent years, commercial banks have substantially reduced the number of their branch offices. We address the question of whether or not the increased distance to lenders caused by branch office closures translates into a lower credit supply for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). We use a unique dataset based on 33,000 loan contracts from a state-owned Swedish bank designed to support credit-constrained SMEs, and relate loan size and the interest rate to the number of nearby commercial bank offices. We use an IV strategy to account for potential endogeneity of the number of banks in a region. In line with previous studies, we find that interest rates increase with distance, while loan size decreases with distance. Thus, a larger number of local bank offices increases the local credit supply, and thereby reduces credit constraints of nearby SMEs.

中文翻译：

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距离仍然很重要：当地银行倒闭和信贷可用性

近年来，商业银行大幅减少了分支机构的数量。我们解决了一个问题，即分支机构关闭导致与贷方的距离增加是否会导致中小企业 (SME) 的信贷供应减少。我们使用了一个独特的数据集，该数据集基于瑞典一家国有银行的 33,000 份贷款合同，旨在支持信贷受限的中小企业，并将贷款规模和利率与附近商业银行办事处的数量联系起来。我们使用 IV 策略来解释一个地区银行数量的潜在内生性。与之前的研究一致，我们发现利率随着距离的增加而增加，而贷款规模随着距离的增加而减少。因此，更多的地方银行办事处增加了地方信贷供应，