In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the number of bank branches declined in most developed countries. In this paper, we investigate how banks have downsized their branch networks in Italy, by comparing the pre‐ and post‐crisis spatial distribution of branches. By using a detailed data set that includes a wide set of controls for the characteristics of each bank branch, we estimate the probability of a branch being closed as a function of its distance from both proprietary and competitors' branches. We find that banks are more prone to close branches in those areas where other proprietary branches are closer and where competitors' branches are closer. This indicates that, since the start of the crisis, banks have closed branches especially in those areas where their proprietary network was relatively more populated and the competition was fiercer.

中文翻译：

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银行业务的地理位置：分支机构关闭的证据

在大萧条之后，大多数发达国家的银行分支机构数量都下降了。在本文中，我们通过比较危机前和危机后分支机构的空间分布，研究了银行如何缩小其在意大利的分支机构网络的规模。通过使用详细的数据集，其中包括对每个银行分支机构的特征进行广泛控制的控件，我们可以根据与其与专有和竞争对手的分支机构之间的距离来估计分支机构关闭的可能性。我们发现，在其他专有分支机构较近，竞争对手的分支机构较近的地区，银行更倾向于关闭分支机构。这表明，自危机爆发以来，