The Repository of Soft Information within Bank Organizations

We examine who is the repository of soft information within bank organizations. Inconsistent with the conventional view of loan officers as the sole repository, we find that branch managers have the most soft information. We also find the repository at a higher hierarchical level at smaller banks. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that branch managers themselves actively collect soft information, especially at smaller banks. These findings suggest the need for a more nuanced view beyond the conventional emphasis on loan officers, and call for studies on the equilibrium design of the collection, processing, and use of soft information within bank organizations.     

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ASIAN MIDDLE CLASSES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

The middle classes in Asian countries, which emerged rapidly in environments that were significantly different from those in the West, share some common features, but differ from one another on a number of other counts. Important among the similarities is that their nation‐building efforts after independence were perforce ambivalent in that, while pursuing economic growth in condensed ways, they tried to maintain the integrity of the state by emphasizing traditional values. On the other hand, they differ from one another in terms of the peculiarities of the preconditions they faced when launching development, the social structure specific to each, and the time at which and the strategy under which they began to pursue economic growth. These factors have brought diversity into the Asian middle classes' development processes and characteristics This paper examines the diversity of the middle classes that are now in a process of emergence in Asia.