IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v36y2012i7p1883-1895.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Productivity and efficiency at large and community banks in the US: A Bayesian true random effects stochastic distance frontier analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Feng, Guohua
  • Zhang, Xiaohui

Abstract

This paper compares the productivity and efficiency of large banks and community banks in the United States over the period 1997–2006. This comparison is performed by estimating a true random effects stochastic distance frontier model—a model that is capable of disentangling unobserved heterogeneity from inefficiency—within a Bayesian framework. We find that failure to consider unobserved heterogeneity results in a misleading ranking of banks and mismeasured technical efficiency, productivity growth, and returns to scale. Our results show that, compared with community banks, large banks have experienced much higher productivity growth and higher levels of returns to scale. Our estimates of total factor productivity growth show a clear downward trend for both large and community banks, and our decomposition of the output-distance-function-based Divisia productivity index indicates that technical change is the driving force behind this trend.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng, Guohua & Zhang, Xiaohui, 2012. "Productivity and efficiency at large and community banks in the US: A Bayesian true random effects stochastic distance frontier analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1883-1895.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:7:p:1883-1895
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.02.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426612000519
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.02.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berger, Allen N. & Mester, Loretta J., 2003. "Explaining the dramatic changes in performance of US banks: technological change, deregulation, and dynamic changes in competition," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 57-95, January.
    2. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2010. "A primal Divisia technical change index based on the output distance function," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 159(2), pages 320-330, December.
    3. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2010. "Efficiency, technical change, and returns to scale in large US banks: Panel data evidence from an output distance function satisfying theoretical regularity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 127-138, January.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    5. Guohua Feng & Apostolos Serletis, 2009. "Efficiency and productivity of the US banking industry, 1998-2005: evidence from the Fourier cost function satisfying global regularity conditions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 105-138.
    6. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    7. Rosen, Richard J, 2003. "Is Three a Crowd? Competition among Regulators in Banking," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(6), pages 967-998, December.
    8. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, March.
    9. Cole, Rebel A. & Goldberg, Lawrence G. & White, Lawrence J., 2004. "Cookie Cutter vs. Character: The Micro Structure of Small Business Lending by Large and Small Banks," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 227-251, June.
    10. Diewert, W. Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2008. "On the estimation of returns to scale, technical progress and monopolistic markups," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 174-193, July.
    11. O'Donnell, Christopher J. & Coelli, Timothy J., 2005. "A Bayesian approach to imposing curvature on distance functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 493-523, June.
    12. Stiroh, Kevin J., 2000. "How did bank holding companies prosper in the 1990s?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1703-1745, November.
    13. van den Broeck, Julien & Koop, Gary & Osiewalski, Jacek & Steel, Mark F. J., 1994. "Stochastic frontier models : A Bayesian perspective," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 273-303, April.
    14. 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.
    15. Sealey, Calvin W, Jr & Lindley, James T, 1977. "Inputs, Outputs, and a Theory of Production and Cost at Depository Financial Institutions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1251-1266, September.
    16. Greene, William, 2005. "Reconsidering heterogeneity in panel data estimators of the stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 269-303, June.
    17. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    18. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    19. Luis Orea, 2002. "Parametric Decomposition of a Generalized Malmquist Productivity Index," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 5-22, July.
    20. Fernandez, Carmen & Osiewalski, Jacek & Steel, Mark F. J., 1997. "On the use of panel data in stochastic frontier models with improper priors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 169-193, July.
    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. Feng, Guohua & Zhang, Xiaohui, 2014. "Returns to scale at large banks in the US: A random coefficient stochastic frontier approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 135-145.
    2. Guohua Feng & Bin Peng & Xiaohui Zhang, 2017. "Productivity and efficiency at bank holding companies in the U.S.: a time-varying heterogeneity approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 179-192, December.
    3. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2010. "Efficiency, technical change, and returns to scale in large US banks: Panel data evidence from an output distance function satisfying theoretical regularity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 127-138, January.
    4. Guohua Feng & Chuan Wang, 2021. "Determinants of profitability of community banks in the USA: a cost-frontier-based decomposition approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(6), pages 2969-2992, June.
    5. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2014. "Undesirable outputs and a primal Divisia productivity index based on the directional output distance function," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 183(1), pages 135-146.
    6. Diego Restrepo-Tobón & Subal Kumbhakar & Kai Sun, 2015. "Obelix vs. Asterix: Size of US commercial banks and its regulatory challenge," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 125-168, October.
    7. Tai-Hsin Huang & Yi-Huang Chiu & Chih-Ying Mao, 2021. "Imposing Regularity Conditions to Measure Banks’ Productivity Changes in Taiwan Using a Stochastic Approach," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 28(2), pages 273-303, June.
    8. Guohua Feng & Chuan Wang & Xibin Zhang, 2019. "Estimation of inefficiency in stochastic frontier models: a Bayesian kernel approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 1-19, February.
    9. Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia & Molyneux, Philip, 2004. "Productivity change in European banking: A comparison of parametric and non-parametric approaches," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 2521-2540, October.
    10. Guohua Feng & Todd Jewell, 2021. "Productivity and efficiency at english football clubs: a random coefficient approach," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(5), pages 571-604, November.
    11. Athanasoglou, Panayiotis P. & Georgiou, Evangelia A. & Staikouras, Christos C., 2009. "Assessing output and productivity growth in the banking industry," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1317-1340, November.
    12. Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & matousek, roman & vu, anh, 2019. "The interplay between problem loans and Japanese bank productivity," MPRA Paper 92960, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Feng, Guohua & Wang, Chuan, 2018. "Why European banks are less profitable than U.S. banks: A decomposition approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Allen N. Berger & Astrid A. Dick & Lawrence G. Goldberg & Lawrence J. White, 2007. "Competition from Large, Multimarket Firms and the Performance of Small, Single‐Market Firms: Evidence from the Banking Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(2‐3), pages 331-368, March.
    15. Shusen Qi & Ralph De Haas & Steven Ongena & Stefan Straetmans & Tamas Vadasz, 2017. "Move a Little Closer? Information Sharing and the Spatial Clustering of Bank Branches," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 17-74, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Jun 2023.
    16. Assaf, A. George & Josiassen, Alexander, 2012. "European vs. U.S. airlines: Performance comparison in a dynamic market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 317-326.
    17. Sarmiento, Miguel & Galán, Jorge E., 2017. "The influence of risk-taking on bank efficiency: Evidence from Colombia," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 52-73.
    18. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2010. "A primal Divisia technical change index based on the output distance function," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 159(2), pages 320-330, December.
    19. Makieła, Kamil, 2016. "Bayesian inference in generalized true random-effects model and Gibbs sampling," MPRA Paper 69389, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Kilian Huber, 2021. "Are Bigger Banks Better? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(7), pages 2023-2066.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity; True random effects stochastic distance frontier; Bayesian estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:7:p:1883-1895. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.