IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lar/wpaper/2008-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Convergence in Banking Efficiency Across European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Laurent Weill

    () (Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Strasbourg)

Abstract

Since the preparation of the Single Market program in the 80s, financial integration in Europe has been expected to provide gains in growth by favoring competition and efficiency on financial markets. Our paper aims to check whether financial integration has taken place on the banking markets, by investigating the convergence in banking efficiency for European Union countries. We measure cost efficiency of banks from 10 EU countries between 1994 and 2005 with the stochastic frontier approach. Our work then constitutes the first one to apply tests of β and σ convergence specified for panel data on banking efficiency measures. We provide evidence of cross-country differences in cost efficiency and of an improvement in cost efficiency for all EU countries. Tests of convergence support the view of a process in convergence in cost efficiency between EU countries. Robustness checks with alternative specifications confirm these findings. These results support the view that financial integration has taken place on the EU banking markets in the recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurent Weill, 2008. "Convergence in Banking Efficiency Across European Countries," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2008-07, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lar:wpaper:2008-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ifs.u-strasbg.fr/large/publications/2008/2008-07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maudos, Joaquin & Pastor, Jose M. & Perez, Francisco & Quesada, Javier, 2002. "Cost and profit efficiency in European banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 33-58, February.
    2. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli & Mario Padula & Marco Pagano, 2004. "Financial market integration and economic growth in the EU," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 19(40), pages 523-577, October.
    3. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 1999. "European lessons on consolidation in banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 609-613, February.
    4. Barro, Robert J & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 223-251, April.
      • Barro, R.J. & Sala-I-Martin, X., 1991. "Convergence," Papers 645, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
      • Barro, Robert J. & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Scholarly Articles 3451299, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    5. Schure, Paul & Wagenvoort, Rien & O'Brien, Dermot, 2004. "The efficiency and the conduct of European banks: Developments after 1992," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 371-396.
    6. Berger, Allen N. & Leusner, John H. & Mingo, John J., 1997. "The efficiency of bank branches," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-162, September.
    7. Bikker, Jacob A. & Haaf, Katharina, 2002. "Competition, concentration and their relationship: An empirical analysis of the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 2191-2214, November.
    8. Vesala, Jukka & Cabral, Inês & Dierick, Frank, 2002. "Banking integration in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 6, European Central Bank.
    9. Altunbas, Y. & Gardener, E. P. M. & Molyneux, P. & Moore, B., 2001. "Efficiency in European banking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1931-1955, December.
    10. Maudos, Joaquin & Fernandez de Guevara, Juan, 2004. "Factors explaining the interest margin in the banking sectors of the European Union," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2259-2281, September.
    11. Bauer, Paul W. & Berger, Allen N. & Ferrier, Gary D. & Humphrey, David B., 1998. "Consistency Conditions for Regulatory Analysis of Financial Institutions: A Comparison of Frontier Efficiency Methods," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 85-114, March.
    12. Barbara Casu & Philip Molyneux, 2003. "A comparative study of efficiency in European banking," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(17), pages 1865-1876.
    13. Robert J. Barro & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1991. "Convergence across States and Regions," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1), pages 107-182.
    14. Jondrow, James & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Materov, Ivan S. & Schmidt, Peter, 1982. "On the estimation of technical inefficiency in the stochastic frontier production function model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 233-238, August.
    15. Inês Cabral & Frank Dierick & Jukka Vesala, 2002. "Banking integration in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 06, European Central Bank.
    16. Fernandez de Guevara, Juan & Maudos, Joaquin & Perez, Francisco, 2007. "Integration and competition in the European financial markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 26-45, February.
    17. Juan Fernández de Guevara & Joaquín Maudos & Francisco Pérez, 2005. "Market Power in European Banking Sectors," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 27(2), pages 109-137, April.
    18. 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.
    19. Bonin, John P. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Wachtel, Paul, 2005. "Bank performance, efficiency and ownership in transition countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 31-53, January.
    20. Canova, Fabio & Marcet, Albert, 1995. "The Poor Stay Poor: Non-Convergence Across Countries and Regions," CEPR Discussion Papers 1265, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Hasan, Iftekhar & Marton, Katherin, 2003. "Development and efficiency of the banking sector in a transitional economy: Hungarian experience," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2249-2271, December.
    22. Vander Vennet, Rudi, 2002. "Cost and Profit Efficiency of Financial Conglomerates and Universal Banks in Europe," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(1), pages 254-282, February.
    23. John Goddard & Phil Molyneux & John O. S. Wilson, 2004. "The profitability of european banks: a cross-sectional and dynamic panel analysis," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(3), pages 363-381, June.
    24. Greene, William H., 1990. "A Gamma-distributed stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 141-163.
    25. Fung, Michael K., 2006. "Scale economies, X-efficiency, and convergence of productivity among bank holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2857-2874, October.
    26. Ana Lozano-Vivas & Jesús Pastor & José Pastor, 2002. "An Efficiency Comparison of European Banking Systems Operating under Different Environmental Conditions," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 59-77, July.
    27. 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.
    28. Carbo, S & Gardener, E P M & Williams, J, 2002. "Efficiency in Banking: Empirical Evidence from the Savings Banks Sector," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(2), pages 204-228, March.
    29. De Bandt, Olivier & Davis, E. Philip, 2000. "Competition, contestability and market structure in European banking sectors on the eve of EMU," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1045-1066, June.
    30. Esho, Neil, 2001. "The determinants of cost efficiency in cooperative financial institutions: Australian evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 941-964, May.
    31. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Empirics for economic growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1353-1375, June.
    32. Parikh, Ashok & Shibata, Miyuki, 2004. "Does trade liberalization accelerate convergence in per capita incomes in developing countries?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 33-48, February.
    33. Cornwell, Christopher & Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C., 1990. "Production frontiers with cross-sectional and time-series variation in efficiency levels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 185-200.
    34. Carbo Valverde, Santiago & Humphrey, David B. & Lopez del Paso, Rafael, 2007. "Do cross-country differences in bank efficiency support a policy of "national champions"?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 2173-2188, July.
    35. Cavallo, Laura & Rossi, Stefania P. S., 2001. "Scale and scope economies in the European banking systems," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4-5), pages 515-531, December.
    36. Maudos, Joaquin & de Guevara, Juan Fernandez, 2007. "The cost of market power in banking: Social welfare loss vs. cost inefficiency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 2103-2125, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banking; convergence; efficiency; European integration; stochastic frontier approach.;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:lar:wpaper:2008-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Christophe J. Godlewski). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/lastrfr.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.