IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v11y2023i1p241-d1023385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency and Competitiveness of the Equatorial Guinean Financial Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Tito Ondo Ela-Medja

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Business and Accounting, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Pilar Alberca

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Business and Accounting, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The private sector, in order to function properly, needs financing from the national financial sector, and so the efficiency and competitiveness of said financial sector arouse the interest of many researchers, who perform analyses in order to provide authorities and decision makers with relevant information for the decision-making process and the design of their financial policies. This study contributes to this line of research, analyzing both technical and economic efficiency (allocative and cost efficiency) in the financial sector, focusing on banks, using a sample of Equatorial Guinean firms during the period of 2013–2019. Furthermore, the competitiveness of the financial sector is also analyzed. Knowing how efficient and competitive the financial sector is could answer many of the questions that arise when regulating the national business sector. To carry out this analysis, parametric approaches such as stochastic frontiers and non-parametric techniques such as data envelopment analysis are used, as well as different competitiveness indicators (Boone, Panzar–Rosse). During the research, it is found that the banking sector, which represents the financial sector of the country, operates with low levels of technical efficiency: the Cobb–Douglas production function and the trans-logarithmic production function showed similar average efficiency results. Regarding competitiveness, the financial sector operates under monopolistic competition. Therefore, much remains to be achieved to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the financial sector for the development of Equatorial Guinea. It is the responsibility of economic agents to provide a good business climate in the country and guarantee perfect competition in the financial market to promote national development.

Suggested Citation

  • Tito Ondo Ela-Medja & Pilar Alberca, 2023. "Efficiency and Competitiveness of the Equatorial Guinean Financial Sector," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:1:p:241-:d:1023385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/1/241/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/1/241/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vesala, Jukka, 1995. "Testing for competition in banking: Behavioral evidence from Finland," Bank of Finland Scientific Monographs, Bank of Finland, volume 0, number sm1995_001.
    2. Sameh Charfeddine Karray & Jamel eddine Chichti, 2013. "Bank Size and Efficiency in Developing Countries: Intermediation Approach versus Value Added Approach and Impact of Non-Traditional Activities," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(5), pages 593-613.
    3. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    4. Apergis, Nicholas, 2015. "Competition in the banking sector: New evidence from a panel of emerging market economies and the financial crisis," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 154-162.
    5. Dosi, Giovanni & Grazzi, Marco & Moschella, Daniele, 2015. "Technology and costs in international competitiveness: From countries and sectors to firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1795-1814.
    6. repec:zbw:bofism:1995_001 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 333-346, June.
    8. Sameh Charfeddine Karray & Jamel eddine Chichti, 2013. "Bank Size and Efficiency in Developing Countries: Intermediation Approach versus Value Added Approach and Impact of Non-Traditional Activities," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(5), pages 593-613, May.
    9. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    10. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Jacob Bikker & Adrian van Rixtel & Christoffer Kok Sørensen, 2011. "A new approach to measuring competition in the loan markets of the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(23), pages 3155-3167.
    11. Emeka Okoro Akpa & Segun Subair Awode & Andy Titus Okwu & Isiaq Olasunkanmi Oseni, 2020. "The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and Remittances Received in Africa: Any Lessons for Covid-19?," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 18(2), pages 217-239.
    12. Claessens, Stijn & Laeven, Luc, 2004. "What Drives Bank Competition? Some International Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 563-583, June.
    13. Harvey Leibenstein, 1975. "Aspects of the X-Efficiency Theory of the Firm," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 580-606, Autumn.
    14. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    15. Rajan, Raghuram G, 1992. "Insiders and Outsiders: The Choice between Informed and Arm's-Length Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1367-1400, September.
    16. Delis, Manthos D & Papanikolaou, Nikolaos I, 2009. "Determinants of bank efficiency: Evidence from a semi-parametric methodology," MPRA Paper 13893, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    18. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    19. Jacob A. Bikker & Sherrill Shaffer & Laura Spierdijk, 2012. "Assessing Competition with the Panzar-Rosse Model: The Role of Scale, Costs, and Equilibrium," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(4), pages 1025-1044, November.
    20. Panzar, John C & Rosse, James N, 1987. "Testing for "Monopoly" Equilibrium," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 443-456, June.
    21. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2000. "Capital Market Liberalization, Economic Growth, and Instability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1075-1086, June.
    22. Fadzlan Sufian & Muzafar Shah Habibullah, 2010. "Bank-specific, Industry-specific and Macroeconomic Determinants of Bank Efficiency," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 4(4), pages 427-461, November.
    23. Ma, Yong & Yao, Chi, 2022. "Openness, financial structure, and bank risk: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    24. Holod, Dmytro & Lewis, Herbert F., 2011. "Resolving the deposit dilemma: A new DEA bank efficiency model," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2801-2810, November.
    25. Ferrier, Gary D. & Lovell, C. A. Knox, 1990. "Measuring cost efficiency in banking : Econometric and linear programming evidence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 229-245.
    26. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Matousek, Roman, 2017. "Modelling bank performance: A network DEA approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 721-732.
    27. Segundo Camino-Mogro & Grace Armijos-Bravo, 2018. "Assessing competition in the private banking sector in Ecuador: an econometric approach with the Panzar-Rosse model," Cuadernos de Economía - Spanish Journal of Economics and Finance, Asociación Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 41(117), pages 225240-2252, Noviembre.
    28. Luis Gutiérrez de Rozas, 2007. "Testing for competition in the Spanish banking industry: The Panzar-Rosse approach revisited," Working Papers 0726, Banco de España.
    29. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, December.
    30. Dietsch, Michel & Lozano-Vivas, Ana, 2000. "How the environment determines banking efficiency: A comparison between French and Spanish industries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 985-1004, June.
    31. Shaffer, Sherrill & Spierdijk, Laura, 2015. "The Panzar–Rosse revenue test and market power in banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 340-347.
    32. Mpho Rapapali & Witness Simbanegavi, 2020. "Competition in South African Banking An assessment using the Boone Indicator and PanzarRosse approaches," Working Papers 9819, South African Reserve Bank.
    33. Johann Burgstaller, 2020. "Retail‐bank efficiency: Nonstandard goals and environmental determinants," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 269-301, June.
    34. Falciola, Justine & Jansen, Marion & Rollo, Valentina, 2020. "Defining firm competitiveness: A multidimensional framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    35. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    36. Christoph H. Loch & Stephen E. Chick & Arnd Huchzermeier, 2008. "Management Quality and Competitiveness," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-79184-3, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tabak, Benjamin M. & Fazio, Dimas M. & Cajueiro, Daniel O., 2012. "The relationship between banking market competition and risk-taking: Do size and capitalization matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3366-3381.
    3. Vaneet Bhatia & Sankarshan Basu & Subrata Kumar Mitra & Pradyumna Dash, 2018. "A review of bank efficiency and productivity," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 55(3), pages 557-600, November.
    4. Roland Banya & Nicholas Biekpe, 2018. "Banking efficiency and its determinants in selected frontier african markets," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 69-95, February.
    5. Osuagwu, Eze Simpson & Nwokoma, Ndubisi, 2017. "Empirical assessment of the competitive conduct of Nigerian banks in a post-consolidation era," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 412-422.
    6. Heckmann, Lotta & Moertel, Julia, 2020. "Hampered interest rate pass-through: A supply side story?," Discussion Papers 59/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    7. Bátiz-Zuk, Enrique & Lara-Sánchez, José Luis, 2022. "Measuring the evolution of competition and the impact of the financial reform in the Mexican banking sector, 2008–2019," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    8. Huang, Tai-Hsin & Chiang, Dien-Lin & Chao, Shih-Wei, 2017. "A new approach to jointly estimating the Lerner index and cost efficiency for multi-output banks under a stochastic meta-frontier framework," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 212-226.
    9. Said-Nour Samake, 2022. "Prudential Regulation and Bank Efficiency : Evidence from WAEMU Zone," Working Papers hal-03540209, HAL.
    10. Martin, Sheila Ann, 1992. "The effectiveness of state technology incentives: evidence from the machine tool industry," ISU General Staff Papers 1992010108000011381, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    11. Zhiheng Li & Shuangzhe Liu & Fanda Meng & Milind Sathye, 2019. "Competition in the Indian Banking Sector: A Panel Data Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, August.
    12. Franz R. Hahn, 2005. "Determinants of Bank Profitability in Austria. A Micro-Macro Approach," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 25688, April.
    13. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Kristof De Witte, 2016. "Local governments’ efficiency: A systematic literature review – Part I," Working Papers 2016/20, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    14. repec:lan:wpaper:1031 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. E Thanassoulis & M Kortelainen & G Johnes & J Johnes, 2011. "Costs and efficiency of higher education institutions in England: a DEA analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(7), pages 1282-1297, July.
    16. Tan, Yong, 2016. "The impacts of risk and competition on bank profitability in China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 85-110.
    17. Bing Xu & Adrian Van Rixtel & Michiel Van Leuvensteijn, 2013. "Measuring bank competition in China: a comparison of new versus conventional approaches applied to loan markets," BIS Working Papers 422, Bank for International Settlements.
    18. Chen, Nengcheng & Xu, Lei & Chen, Zeqiang, 2017. "Environmental efficiency analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone using super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and tobit models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 659-671.
    19. repec:lan:wpaper:1046 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Rishabh Goswami & Farah Hussain & Manish Kumar, 2019. "Banking Efficiency Determinants in India: A Two-stage Analysis," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 13(4), pages 361-380, November.
    21. repec:lan:wpaper:1109 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Xie, Bai-Chen & Ni, Kang-Kang & O'Neill, Eoghan & Li, Hong-Zhou, 2021. "The scale effect in China's power grid sector from the perspective of malmquist total factor productivity analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    23. Tan, Yong & Anchor, John, 2017. "The impacts of risk-taking behaviour and competition on technical efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese banking industry," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 90-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:1:p:241-:d:1023385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.