[Miller and Modigliani (1961) show that in perfect and complete financial markets a firm's value is unaffected by its dividend policy. Much of the more recent research has demonstrated that dividend policy becomes important in the presence of taxation, asymmetric information, incomplete contracts, institutional constraints, and transaction costs. By examining the effects of dividend policies on 475 British firms existing between 1895 and 1905, and consequently operating in an environment of very low taxation with an absence of institutional constraints, we find strong support for asymmetric information theories of dividend policy, and little support for agency models.]

We investigate the impact of increasing bank concentration on bank loan contracts in a lightly regulated environment that allows us to abstract from possible confounding effects of regulation and focus on the “pure” effects of competition on bank lending. We study over 30,000 British bank loans over the period 1885 to 1925. Borrowers in counties with high bank concentration received smaller loans and posted more collateral than borrowers in other counties. In high concentration counties, the quality of loan applicants improved, suggesting that banks restricted credit, not that the quality of loan applicants had worsened.

Miller and Modigliani (1961) show that in perfect and complete financial markets a firm's value is unaffected by its dividend policy. Much of the more recent research has demonstrated that dividend policy becomes important in the presence of taxation, asymmetric information, incomplete contracts, institutional constraints, and transaction costs. By examining the effects of dividend policies on 475 British firms existing between 1895 and 1905, and consequently operating in an environment of very low taxation with an absence of institutional constraints, we find strong support for asymmetric information theories of dividend policy, and little support for agency models.

We investigate the impact of increasing bank concentration on bank loan contracts in a lightly regulated environment that allows us to abstract from possible confounding effects of regulation and focus on the “pure” effects of competition on bank lending. We study over 30,000 British bank loans over the period 1885 to 1925. Borrowers in counties with high bank concentration received smaller loans and posted more collateral than borrowers in other counties. In high concentration counties, the quality of loan applicants improved, suggesting that banks restricted credit, not that the quality of loan applicants had worsened. Received February 4, 2016; editorial decision December 20, 2016 by Editor Philip Strahan.