*Who Competes with Whom? The Case of Depository Institutions

Abstract

The willingness of consumers to substitute between banks and thrifts and between multimarket and single-market institutions is of strong interest to policymakers, yet little empirical work exists in this area. We estimate a structural model of consumer choice of depository institutions using a broadly representative panel data set covering the U.S. from 19902001. Using a flexible framework, we uncover utility parameters that affect a consumer's institution choice and measure the degree of market segmentation for two institutional subgroups. Our estimated parameters, elasticities and policy experiments suggest limited substitutability between banks and thrifts and between multimarket and single-market institutions, especially in urban markets.