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New evidence on returns to scale and product mix among U.S. commercial banks

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Author Info
David C. Wheelock
Paul W. Wilson

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Abstract

Numerous studies have found that banks exhaust scale economies at low levels of output, but most are based on the estimation of parametric cost functions which misrepresent bank cost. Here we avoid specification error by using nonparametric kernal regression techniques. We modify measures of scale and product mix economies introduced by Berger et al. (1987) to accommodate the nonparametric estimation approach, and estimate robust confidence intervals to assess the statistical significance of returns to scale. We find that banks experience increasing returns to scale up to approximately $500 million of assets, and essentially constant returns thereafter. We also find that minimum efficient scale has increased since 1985.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its series Working Papers with number 1997-003.

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Date of creation: 1997
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Publication status: Published in Journal of Monetary Economics, June 2001, 47(3), pp. 653-74
Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:1997-003

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Keywords: Banks and banking Banks and banking - Costs Economies of scale

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kaparakis, Emmanuel I & Miller, Stephen M & Noulas, Athanasios G, 1994. "Short-Run Cost Inefficiency of Commercial Banks: A Flexible Stochastic Frontier Approach," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 26(4), pages 875-93, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Jalal D. Akhavein & Allen N. Berger & David B. Humphrey, 1996. "The Effects of Megamergers on Efficiency and Prices: Evidence from a Bank Profit Function," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-03, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    Other versions:
  3. John H. Boyd & Stanley L. Graham, 1991. "Investigating the banking consolidation trend," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Spr, pages 3-15. [Downloadable!]
  4. Wolfgang Hardle & Oliver Linton, 1994. "Applied Nonparametric Methods," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1069, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Mitchell, Karlyn & Onvural, Nur M, 1996. "Economies of Scale and Scope at Large Commercial Banks: Evidence from the Fourier Flexible Functional Form," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(2), pages 178-99, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Allen N. Berger & David B. Humphrey, 1992. "Megamergers in banking and the use of cost efficiency as an antitrust defense," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 203, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  8. McAllister, Patrick H. & McManus, Douglas, 1993. "Resolving the scale efficiency puzzle in banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 389-405, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Clark, Jeffrey A, 1996. "Economic Cost, Scale Efficiency, and Competitive Viability in Banking," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(3), pages 342-64, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David C. Wheelock & Paul Wilson, 2008. "Are credit unions too small?," Working Papers 2008-033, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  2. Enzo Dia, 2004. "Imperfect Information and Monopolistic Pricing in the Banking Industry," Working Papers 74, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2004. [Downloadable!]
  3. Timothy J. Yeager, 2002. "The demise of community banks? local economic shocks aren't to blame," Supervisory Policy Analysis Working Papers 2002-03, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  4. Huberto M. Ennis & H.S. Malek, 2005. "Bank risk of failure and the too-big-to-fail policy," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 21-44. [Downloadable!]
  5. Paul W. Wilson & Kathleen Carey, 2004. "Nonparametric analysis of returns to scale in the US hospital industry," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 505-524. [Downloadable!]
  6. Enzo Dia, 2004. "Monopolistic Pricing in the Banking Industry: a Dynamic Model," Working Papers 73, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2004. [Downloadable!]
  7. David C. Wheelock & Paul Wilson, 2007. "Non-parametric, unconditional quantile estimation for efficiency analysis with an application to Federal Reserve check processing operations," Working Papers 2005-027, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  8. Kenneth A. Carow & Edward J. Kane, 2001. "Event-Study Evidence of the Value of Relaxing Longstanding Regulatory Restraints on Banks, 1970-2000," NBER Working Papers 8594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Enzo Dia, 2004. "Monopolistic Pricing in the Banking Industry: a Dynamic Portfolio Model," Finance 0411025, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  10. William R. Emmons & R. Alton Gilbert & Timothy J. Yeager, 2001. "The importance of scale economies and geographic diversification in community bank mergers," Working Papers 2001-024, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  11. David C. Wheelock & Paul Wilson, 2002. "Consolidation in US banking: which banks engage in mergers?," Working Papers 2001-003, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. R. Alton Gilbert & David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2002. "New evidence on the Fed's productivity in providing payments services," Working Papers 2002-020, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Carletti, Elena & Hartmann, Philipp & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2005. "Bank Mergers, Competition and Liquidity," Working Paper Series 182, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. David C. Wheelock & Paul Wilson, 2003. "Robust nonparametric estimation of efficiency and technical change in U.S. commercial banking," Working Papers 2003-037, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Hulusi Inanoglu & Mahmoud A. El-Gamal, 2005. "Inefficiency and heterogeneity in Turkish banking: 1990-2000," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(5), pages 641-664. [Downloadable!]
  16. Guohua Feng & Apostolos Serletis, 2007. "Efficiency and Productivity of the US Banking Industry, 1998-2005: Evidence from the Fourier Cost Function Satisfying Global Reg," Working Papers 2007-13, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 11 Dec 2007. [Downloadable!]
  17. Robert M. Adams & Paul W. Bauer & Robin C. Sickles, 2002. "Scope and scale economies in Federal Reserve payment processing," Working Paper 0213, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
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