The study looked at small community banks that failed during the 2007 financial crisis. They found that these banks were more likely to experience financial problems if insiders took out a lot of money through dividends before the crisis. This means that giving money to insiders instead of keeping it in the bank made the banks weaker and more likely to fail. The study compared these failed banks to similar ones that didn't fail, showing that insider payouts were a key factor in the banks' fragility during the crisis.