中国银行业规模经济和范围经济的实证研究——基于复合成本函数的分析

本文首次在国内利用复合成本函数估计我国国有商业银行和股份制商业银行1998——2003年的成本函数,并计算出各自的规模经济和范围经济。复合成本函数把投入价格的对数二次项和产出的二次项结合起来,具有优良的实证研究性质。实证研究结果表明:时间对我国银行业的规模经济和范围经济影响不显著;国有商业银行和股份制商业银行都存在着轻微的规模不经济和范围不经济,国有银行略好于股份制银行。我国商业银行的两种产出——存款和贷款不存在成本互补性。     

The composite cost function and efficiency in giant Japanese banks

This study provides further empirical investigation, in the context of giant Japanese banks, of the recent claim by Pulley and Braunstein (1992, A composite cost function for multiproduct firms with an application to economies of scope in banking, Review of Economics and Statistics 74, 221–230), that their new composite model for the multiproduct cost function has important advantages over the separable quadratic, generalized translog and standard translog models. In addition to assessing the composite model's relative ability in measuring global scope and scale economies, the study also extends the P-B analysis to assess measurement of product-specific scope and scale economies, pairwise cost complementarities between outputs, changes in the marginal costs of outputs and technological change. The results appear to confirm P-B's chain. The persistent finding of scale economies for large Japanese banks is also investigated and confirmed.     

Branching restrictions and banking costs

Previous research of banking costs has been limited by the choice of the functional form, irregularities in the estimated cost functions, and a failure to rigorously examine the difference between banks in branching states and banks in unit-banking states. This paper addresses these shortcomings. Banks are modelled as three-input-three-output cost minimizing firms. A three equation system is estimated using 1985 Functional Cost Analysis data. The findings indicate that banks in unit-banking states experience diseconomies of scale Banks in branching states experience diseconomies of scale at the bank level but economies of scale at the branch level. We also find evidence of economies of scope for branch-state banks but not for unit-state banks.     

Financial Deregulation and Economies of Scale and Scope: Evidence from the Major Australian Banks

In this study a parametric approach employing a flexible translog functional model is used to estimate economies of scale and scope in the four major Australian banks (ANZ, NAB, CBA and WESTPAC). Two hypotheses are tested to determine whether bank economies of scale have changed and also whether economies of scope were exhausted following financial deregulation. The analysis reveals that there is evidence for a continuing difference in banks' economies of scale as a result of deregulation. The empirical evidence also suggests that economies of scope were not exhausted by financial deregulation. In addition, there is continuing evidence of considerable economies of scope in the four major banks. In other words, Australian banks have not fully embraced deregulation and adjusted their joint production in a cost efficient manner. Findings in this study indicate that further deregulation would create a more competitive and efficient banking environment in Australia.     

An international comparison of scale economies in banking: Evidence from Turkey

In this article economies of scale are examined for Turkish banks. The literature on economies of scale in depository institutions is substantial. Yet, virtually all published articles have examined production/costs using data for developed countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Israel. Here we examine data from a country that has an economic system vastly different in terms of per capita productivity. Despite the differences, the results are similar across countries in that we find no significant evidence of economies of scale at output levels near the sample mean. This suggests that the conclusion from examining banks in developed countries—that a bank does not have to be large in order to be competitive from a cost perspective—holds in a less developed country.     

Who said large banks don’t experience scale economies? Evidence from a risk-return-driven cost function

The Great Recession focused attention on large financial institutions and systemic risk. We investigate whether large size provides any cost advantages to the economy and, if so, whether these cost advantages are due to technological scale economies or too-big-to-fail subsidies. Estimating scale economies is made more complex by risk-taking. Better diversification resulting from larger scale generates scale economies but also incentives to take more risk. When this additional risk-taking adds to cost, it can obscure the underlying scale economies and engender misleading econometric estimates of them. Using data pre- and post-crisis, we estimate scale economies using two production models. The standard model ignores endogenous risk-taking and finds little evidence of scale economies. The model accounting for managerial risk preferences and endogenous risk-taking finds large scale economies, which are not driven by too-big-to-fail considerations. We evaluate the costs and competitive implications of breaking up the largest banks into smaller banks.     

Economies of scale in financial institutions: A general model applied to insurance

This study describes and applies an alternative methodology for measuring economies of scale in financial institutions. A complete model of a profit maximizing financial intermediary is constructed which yields a set of first-order conditions. These together with linear specifications of appropriate revenue and cost functions permit a two-stage estimation of cost and revenue parameters.Application of the model is illustrated by using data from the Canadian general insurance industry. Estimated cost functions suggest (1) that joint stock insurance firms realize no economies of scale from expansion of activity in any one line of insurance but realize diversification economies from writing the same aggregate dollar premiums over appreciably more lines; (2) that mutual companies enjoy direct economies of scale from a simultaneous expansion of insurance lines and, possibly, some diversification economies. Diversification economies may or may not yield special advantages to large firms depending on the competitive state of the reinsurance market.     

Too Big to Be Efficient? The Impact of Implicit Subsidies on Estimates of Scale Economies for Banks

We examine whether “too‐big‐to‐fail” (TBTF) factors affect estimates of scale economies for large banks. From a standard model of bank production that does not control for any TBTF factors, we find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. We then control for TBTF factors by using a measure of the “implicit subsidy” that emerges from a reduction in TBTF banks’ funding costs due to investor expectations of government support. We do this in two ways: first, we estimate scale economies from an augmented model of bank production that employs a proxy for the counterfactual price of debt that banks would face in the absence of any TBTF funding cost advantage; second, we estimate scale economies from a model of bank production that is estimated only for a sample of banks considered unlikely to be TBTF. After controlling for TBTF factors using either method, we no longer find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. These results suggest that estimated scale economies for large banks are affected by TBTF factors.     

A Multi-Product Cost Study of the U.S. Life Insurance Industry

This paper reports estimates of overall and product specific economies of scale, as well as, economies of scope for the main outputs of the life insurance industry. In addition, the paper presents a number of structural tests of the production technology. The results indicate that the estimated cost function satisfies the regularity conditions, that the industry exhibits overall and product specific economies of scale, and that there are significant economies of scope between the main lines of business.     

Cost reductions in electronic payments: The roles of consolidation,economies of scale,and technical change

Unfettered nationwide bank branching raises the issue of whether consolidation of banks’ “back-office” operations, such as their payment processing, reduces operating costs. Whether centralized processing of payments reduces costs depends on the size and range of scale economies, the relative prices of data processing and telecommunication inputs, and changes in technology in addition to the number of sites operated. While consolidating payment operations into fewer sites may reduce average data processing costs, those cost savings may be more than offset by associated increases in telecommunications expenses. To investigate the potential effects of consolidation on future banking operations, we look at the experience of the Federal Reserve in consolidating its Fedwire electronic funds transfer operation over 1979 to 1996. Previous research suggested that scale economies in Fedwire payment processing were minimal and that the observed declines in average Fedwire production costs were largely attributable to technical advance. Our estimates suggest more nearly the opposite. We find that the Fedwire funds transfer operation exhibited large scale economies but little technical advance beyond that already embodied in the technology-adjusted input prices of data processing and telecommunication inputs. We also find that the consolidation of Fedwire into fewer offices contributed around one-fourth of the overall reduction in Fedwire average cost.     

Changes in the Cost of Intermediation: The Case of Savings and Loans

The minimum cost output configuration for a firm may change as the result of a variety of factors, including changes in market structure. In this paper we test this structural change hypothesis with savings and loan data. We find support for the hypothesis that separable, constant returns to scale production functions characterize the average savings and loan in our sample in 1983. This is in contrast to the cost complementarities found in 1978. We argue that this result may be the result of regulatory changes that allowed savings and loans to alter their production mix to fully capture the benefits of joint production.     

Are scale economies in banking elusive or illusive?: Evidence obtained by incorporating capital structure and risk-taking into models of bank production

This paper explores how to incorporate banks' capital structure and risk-taking into models of production. In doing so, the paper bridges the gulf between (1) the banking literature that studies moral hazard effects of bank regulation without considering the underlying microeconomics of production and (2) the literature that uses dual profit and cost functions to study the microeconomics of bank production without explicitly considering how banks' production decisions influence their riskiness.Various production models that differ in how they account for capital structure and in the objectives they impute to bank managers – cost minimization versus value maximization – are estimated using U.S. data on highest-level bank holding companies. Modeling the bank's objective as value maximization conveniently incorporates both market-priced risk and expected cash flow into managers' ranking and choice of production plans.Estimated scale economies are found to depend critically on how banks' capital structure and risk-taking are modeled. In particular, when equity capital, in addition to debt, is included in the production model and cost is computed from the value-maximizing expansion path rather than the cost-minimizing path, banks are found to have large scale economies that increase with size. Moreover, better diversification is associated with larger scale economies while increased risk-taking and inefficient risk-taking are associated with smaller scale economies.     

银行权益资本使用及其对规模经济测度的影响

将所有者权益的作用嵌入银行技术模型,测算中国十六家上市商业银行满足成本最小化时的所有者权益影子价格,并以成本最小化为标准评价权益资本使用情况。研究发现,五家国有大型商业银行持有高于最小化成本水平的所有者权益;其余大部分股份制商业银行的权益资本低于成本最小化要求。进一步测算规模经济,发现所有者权益进入成本方程后计算出的规模经济效应比仅以所有者权益为条件调节项和使用标准成本方程估计出的规模经济结果都要高,说明规模经济的轨迹将依赖于银行对负债与所有者权益相对信任度,即提高存款和所有者权益的相对成本及所有者权益资本以多大程度进入到成本函数设定中。     

我国商业银行规模经济和范围经济的实证研究

本文利用广义超越对数成本函数,分组研究了我国14家商业银行2001—2010年的面板数据,结果表明:股份制商业银行的总体规模经济略好于国有控股商业银行,但在贷款特定产出规模经济方面要逊于国有控股商业银行;国有控股商业银行的范围经济要好于股份制商业银行,在特定产出范围经济方面,贷款与存款、投资与存款存在成本互补,贷款与投资存在较轻程度的范围不经济。     

Competitive viability in banking : Scale, scope, and product mix economies

Conventional scale and scope economies are inadequate to determine the competitive viability of banks that vary in scale and product mix simultaneously. This paper develops two new and more general measures of multi-product economies. Slight diseconomies of scale and product mix are found for banks, usually on the order of 1 to 3 percent, which may be due to demand-side influences. These are robust to differing cost and output specifications, organizational levels, and competitive environments. These results differ from other banking studies that found scope economies, a conflict that may be due to methodological difficulties.     

Branching,scale economies,and banking costs

In this paper, we develop and estimate a model of bank costs based on a theory of the branch cost function. First, we show that convenient branch location is important to banking customers and implies that banks do not necessarily operate branches at minimum average cost. This theoretical result provides a rationale for including branch variables in the bank cost function. Second, we estimate a statistical cost equation derived explicitly from assumptions about the branch cost function and including branch output variables. Our empirical results suggest substantial economies of scale at the branch level, but no economies from expansion by branching. Finally, we show that the resulting cost structure of the banking industry does not imply that a highly concentrated banking structure is necessary for efficiency. Thus, economies of scale would not be expected to force small banks out of the market, even if current restrictions on interstate banking are liberalized.     

Activity-based costing systems and incremental costs

This article derives, in a comprehensive but informal way, the essential conditions for activity-based costing (ABC) and for costs proportional with output volume (CVO), such as variable material and component costs, to measure economic costs defined as incremental costs. Without this property these costing systems may give incorrect signals in decision making, such as in pricing, in altering the product portfolio, in make or buy and outsourcing decisions and in cost management. In contrast to the existing literature, these conditions are found to be extensive and to require a fairly detailed exploration of the complex and multifaceted nature of technology. Conditions on technology to allow the usual definition of cost pools are shown to require that production involves neither cost complementarities nor non-complementarities, that inputs in a cost pool are independent of those in other cost pools and that technology takes the form that the input mixes for a cost pool are fixed and invariant with volume. Essential conditions on the input market and the costing system are also considered. It will be indicated that a perfect market for inputs is required and that cost drivers are required to be linear homogeneous in the inputs in their cost pools. It is also shown that the type of cost function that can be entertained is restricted by those permissible technologies which allow incremental costs to be generated. These assumptions are thus imported into all the uses of these methods. Failure to satisfy these conditions suggests that many costs cannot be easily treated using ABC or CVO. Such failure also leads to distorting accounting numbers away from economic costs.     

改进的效率测算模型、影子银行与中国商业银行效率

商业银行及其效率的高低是金融供给侧结构性改革的关键环节,而可以压缩的“坏”投入和影子银行对商业银行效率产生重要影响。本文首次建立理论模型并分析影子银行影响商业银行效率的路径;方法上,同时区分投入和产出的“好”或“坏”,拓展只区分产出的“好”或“坏”的效率测算模型;实证上,首次测算并分析“坏”投入、影子银行业务对商业银行利润、风险和效率的影响。结果表明:理论上,影子银行会同时增加风险承担和利润,但无法确定经风险调整后的利润增加能否提升效率;只区分产出的模型高估了效率,尤其是显著高估四大行和股份制商业银行第一阶段的效率,大型商业银行依靠网点的扩张不利于效率的提升;影子银行业务提升了四大国有银行尤其是股份制银行的效率,但对中小型商业银行效率影响较小。总的来看,压缩“坏”投入和规范影子银行是增加有效金融供给、优化金融供给结构和提升银行效率的重要途径。     

赶超战略与大银行垄断——基于新结构经济学的视角

改革开放初期,中国有很多资本高度密集的大型国有企业,需要大量资金维持生产运营,若无法获得足够的银行贷款以致资金链断裂而破产倒闭,极易引发动荡。本文研究发现,在当时中国资本稀缺的要素禀赋结构下,为确保“重要而不能倒”的国有企业获得足够的银行贷款而不破产倒闭,不适合采用放开银行准入以促使银行竞争的方式,反而应限制银行准入,控制银行数量。原因在于,放开银行准入增加的仅是中小银行,其资金动员能力有限,与国有企业的规模特性不相匹配,更重要的是,大量中小银行进入会分流大银行的存款,降低大银行的资金动员及服务国有企业的能力,导致国有企业的贷款成本和破产风险因此而上升。本文指出,一个国家的银行业结构内生于该国的经济发展战略。限制银行准入的政策安排通过在金融方面支持国有企业,在改革初期起到了维护国防安全、保障国计民生和维持社会经济稳定的作用,为平稳推动改革创造了条件。     

Correspondent services and cost economies in commercial banking

Prior bank cost function studies have ignored the fact that some banks obtain a substantial amount of services from their correspondents. If these services are paid for with compensating deposit balances, their cost to the purchasing bank is not reflected in standard expense reports. This paper investigates whether explicit consideration of theese correspondent costs materially affects estimated bank returns to scale. The results indicate that the level of banksoperating costs is underreported by as much as 15%. While scale economy estimates for unit banks are not significantly affected by the addition of correspondent service costs, prior studies have overestimated branch bank scale economies by a small but statistically significant amount.