Does the Church Tower Principle, i.e. geographical proximity between borrowing firm and lending bank, matter in credit risk management? If so, the bank might expose itself to a greater risk by lending to distant firms and should therefore respond by rationing them harder. In this paper we incorporate the Church Tower Principle in a simple theoretical model and derive implications that are empirically testable. We use data on corporate loans granted 1994 to 2000 by a leading Swedish bank and find no evidence that the principle applies.
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