Research Wins: Banking & Media
Bauer Finance Faculty Explore How Media Impacts Banking Decisions
Recent research from Bauer College finance faculty explores one important factor that plays into a person’s choice of where to bank: local TV news.
Haaris Mateen receiving "Best Paper in Financials Institutions" award at 2025 Southern Finance Association meeting.
Haaris Mateen receiving "Best Paper in Financials Institutions" award at 2025 Southern Finance Association meeting.
The paper Banking Local: Media Slant, Erosion of Trust and Financial Decisions, co-authored by assistant professor Elizabeth Berger and assistant professor Haaris Mateen, was recognized for its innovative look into how media impacts local economics at the 2025 Southern Finance Association meeting, where it was awarded “Best Paper in Financial Institutions.”
“When people make decisions, they’re often looking for information to inform said decisions,” Mateen said. “TV is something that almost everyone consumes.”
With that in mind, the authors wanted to measure whether this type of information consumption could affect average United States households. “We know that media has effects on local environments, so we decided, let’s look at the banking system,” Berger said.
Their study shows that when people are exposed to media that slant towards a negative view of national events, they move their money into local banks, leading to a major shift in capital.
To be recognized by their peers in this way is an honor, and an important steppingstone in establishing a name for oneself as a young researcher, Mateen said.
“Receiving this positive feedback not only helps us improve our paper but also lets us know that we’re going down the right path,” Berger said.
Bauer helped lay a solid foundation for this paper by fostering a positive environment for collaboration, Berger said. Working for a college that has the resources to recruit high quality faculty and then send them to conferences is excellent support to have as scholars, she added.
“The thing that stood out to me when I first came to Bauer was high collegial energy,” Mateen said. “It’s good for your research, of course, but it’s also good to be surrounded by great colleagues.”
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