9. Robert Chirinko examines the role of state banks within development

Our episode this week comes from our discussion with Robert Chirinko and his examination of state banks within local economies. Together we discussed the trade-offs of state versus national banks, centralization versus decentralization, and a brief history of recent state bank failures. Dr. Chirinko’s research examines business behavior with a focus on capital formation, banking, financial markets, corporate governance and finance, macroeconomics, and tax policy. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and has held faculty positions at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and full-time visiting positions at Stanford University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois at Chicago, he was on the faculty of Emory University where he was the Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Social Sciences. He is currently a professor in the Finance Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a research fellow at the Center for Economic Studies in Munich, and an affiliate and member of the Faculty Advisory Panel for the Government Finance Research Center.