We provide first empirical evidence that consumer peer effects matter for banks' deposit demand. Using a novel measure that depicts for each county how exposed peers are to a specific bank in a given year, we tightly identify the causal effect of peer exposure on deposit demand through a fixed effects identification strategy. We address key empirical challenges such as time-invariant homophily. We find that a one percent increase in a bank's peer exposure leads to a 0.05 percent increase in deposit market share. This effect has become stronger over time with the rise of the internet and social media, which facilitate cross-county communication. Peer exposure is especially relevant for smaller banks and customers that have access to the internet.
Co-author: Naz Koont (Columbia)
Working Papers​
Work in Progress​
Health insurance subsidies and asymmetric information
RCT, co-authors: Lorenzo Casaburi (UZH) and Jack Willis (Columbia)
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Leveraging community knowledge for credit distribution
RCT, co-authors: Lasse Brune (Kellogg), Dean Karlan (Kellogg), and Chris Udry (Kellogg)
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Anti-poverty interventions going green
RCT, co-authors: Jennifer Alix-Garcia (Oregon), Lasse Brune (Kellogg), Dean Karlan (Kellogg), and Halefom Nigus (Kellogg)
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Banking the planet
Co-authors: Patrick Behrer (WorldBank) and Teevrat Garg (UCSD)