Measurement and determinants of total factor productivity: evidence from Indian banking industry

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to measure the level of total factor productivity of the Indian banking sector and to identify both the bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of the total factor productivity after the global subprime mortgage crisis. Design/methodology/approach - The research sample consists of 61 commercial banks including 21 public sector banks, 18 private sector banks and 22 foreign banks. The annual data is collected from the website of Reserve Bank of India from 2008 to 2019. The authors employed the non-parametric DEA approach to estimate Malmquist total factor productivity index for each bank as well as across different ownership groups. The panel data estimation technique was used to identify the determinants of total factor productivity. Findings - The results suggested that an increase in the technological shift raised the bank's productivity above the optimal frontier. Among the bank-specific determinants, the bank size and bank diversifications are significantly declining productivity, whereas credit-deposit ratio and return on asset significantly increasing productivity. Among the macro-specific determinants, inflation, growth rate and fiscal deficit ratio negatively affect productivity, whereas capital formation to the GVA ratio boosts the level of productivity. Research limitations/implications - The authors have used intermediate method to select the inputs and outputs as per the suitability to the context. However, the disaggregate level such as state and district level analysis can be done using production and value-added approaches to explore the regional variations of the banking performance. Furthermore, the parametric methods such as stochastic frontier analysis can be used to examine banking performance, which the authors left for the future research. Practical implications - This study suggested that banks should increase the economies of scale of their total assets and focus on the interest-earning activity. The banks need to proactively operate the business policy by following the changing path of inflation. The banks need to reduce their rate of fiscal-deficit to the GVA with the purpose to boost their level of productivity. Originality/value - The study provides an important implication for bankers and policymakers in terms of heightening the banking performance during the period of dynamic economic events.