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Are U.S. Commercial Banks Too Big?

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  • Diego A. Restrepo-Tobón
  • Subal C. Kumbhakar
  • Kai Sun

Abstract

This paper presents new nonparametric measures of scale economies and TFP growth for U.S. banks. Unlike previous studies that use fully nonparametric models, our approach controls for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity among banks in estimating returns to scale, TFP growth and its components. Using data for U.S. commercial banks from 2001 to 2010, we find evidence of significant scale economies across the entire bank size distribution. Returns to scale are persistent over time, decrease with bank size, and contribute significantly to TFP growth. Our results indicate that almost all small and medium size banks and most of the largest banks have strong economic incentives to keep growing. Thus, the consolidation of the banking industry is unlikely to retrench in the near future.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego A. Restrepo-Tobón & Subal C. Kumbhakar & Kai Sun, 2013. "Are U.S. Commercial Banks Too Big?," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 10943, Universidad EAFIT.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000122:010943
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Robert McKeown, 2017. "Costs, Size And Returns To Scale Among Canadian And U.s. Commercial Banks," Working Paper 1382, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    2. Huang, Tai-Hsin & Chen, Kuan-Chen & Lin, Chung-I, 2018. "An extension from network DEA to copula-based network SFA: Evidence from the U.S. commercial banks in 2009," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 51-62.
    3. Davide Fiaschi & Imre Kondor & Matteo Marsili & Valerio Volpati, 2014. "The Interrupted Power Law and the Size of Shadow Banking," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-8, April.
    4. Robert McKeown, 2017. "Where Are The Economies Of Scale In Canadian Banking?," Working Paper 1380, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    5. Emir Malikov & Diego Restrepo-Tobón & Subal Kumbhakar, 2015. "Estimation of banking technology under credit uncertainty," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 185-211, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banks; TFP growth; returns to scale; scale economies; nonparametric;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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