Liquidity trading following mutual fund outflows creates a potentially powerful empirical setting in which stock price variation is unrelated to changes in firm fundamentals. Instrumental variables (IVs) drawn from this setting impose an additional assumption that managers sell firms in proportion to portfolio weights. I show that this assumption causes selection bias in these IVs. It misallocates large price impacts to poorly performing, illiquid firms with lower growth – firms that managers systematically avoid selling. Simulations show that selection bias doubles the magnitude of regression coefficients and precludes potential fixes. Numerous recent studies exploiting these IVs should be reevaluated.

I examine whether local bank finance facilitated the transition to a service-based economy in the U.S. I identify a causal role for local finance in service job creation. I use county-level changes to alcohol laws as demand shocks to service employers across a subsample of U.S. counties. Counties with more local finance experience more service job creation. This leads to labor market transitions that reflect shifts in the broader economy. Information asymmetry and collateral constraints connect local finance to service sector employment. The findings identify a unique role for local finance in the evolution to a postindustrial service-based economy.

We use a matching method that constructs synthetic counterfactual states to identify the channels that link bank deregulation to financial integration, and thereby to economic growth. We document a positive, but conditional, effect of financial integration on economic growth. We explore the heterogeneous effects of financial integration across states depending on the capital mobility in each state. Our results reveal a correlation between financial integration and subsequent banking sector changes related to an expansion in loan recipients. We show that financial integration democratizes lending and spurs economic growth.