Assessing market power in the U.S. commercial banking industry under deregulation

This study attempts to investigate market power in the U.S. commercial banking industry since the U.S. government began to deregulate the banking sector in the early 1990s using the static Bresnahan–Lau model (SBLM) and dynamic Bresnahan–Lau model with error corrections (DBLEC). In particular, panel unit root and panel cointegration techniques are utilized to examine the dynamic model. The empirical results of the SBLM show that the banking industry is highly competitive. The empirical results of DBLEC also suggest that the commercial banking industry is close to being perfectly competitive in the short run. By contrast, the adjustment speeds of the supply and demand sides towards the long-run equilibrium are quite slow in that market, which implies that the U.S. commercial banks enjoy a certain degree of long-run market power.     

Joint estimation of technical efficiency and production risk for multi-output banks under a panel data cost frontier model

This article generalizes production risk from a single output production function to a multiple output cost frontier, which is able to examine input-oriented technical efficiencies and production risk simultaneously in the context of a panel data. Furthermore, the joint confidence interval estimates for technical efficiencies are constructed by means of multiple comparisons with the best approach. Whether taking production risk into account or not offers quite dissimilar implications in terms of the average technical efficiency measure and the identification of multiple efficient banks achieving the optimal cost frontier. It is suggested that inferences drawn on the basis of the confidence intervals of technical efficiency provide much more fruitful and insightful information than the point estimation alone. Bank specific risk parameters are found to be highly and positively correlated with fixed-effect estimates, implying that the more risk-averse a bank is, the more technically efficient it will be.

Estimating X-Efficiency in Taiwanese Banking Using a Translog Shadow Profit Function

A multiproducttranslog normalized shadow profit function is used to examineX-efficiency and related issues with respect to Taiwan's bankingsector. The model developed here is theoretically more appropriatecompared to that proposed by Berger, Hancock, and Humphrey (1993);as the former is obtained within the framework of profit maximization.Parameter estimates from our parametric translog profit functionare shown to be robust against different model specifications.More than half of all potential profits are estimated to be lostdue to economic inefficiency. The relatively more important roleof technical inefficiency, compared with that of allocative inefficiency,implies that deficient output revenues outweigh excessive inputcosts. Translog evidence indicates that larger banks tend tobe more technically efficient than smaller ones. The data showstrong technical progress during the sample period, while themodel failing to include X-inefficiency yields no technical advance.     

A Study on the Productivities of IT Capital and Computer Labor: Firm-level Evidence from Taiwan’s Banking Industry

The current paper extends the non-neutral stochastic frontier production function—which belongs to the class of a one-step procedure as defined by Wang and Schmidt (2002) and developed by Huang and Liu (1994)—from a cross-sectional setting to a panel data modeling. Using a newly-surveyed dataset from Taiwan’s commercial banks on their investments in information and communication technologies (IT), I find that IT capital and computer labor tend to exhibit higher productivities than their non-IT and non-computer counterparts, that IT capital has positive impacts on the marginal productivities of computer labor and borrowed funds, and that the mean technical efficiency is around 87.7%. Evidence is found that the total factor productivity of the banking sector grew at an average rate of 0.28% per annum, albeit fluctuating, for the past 8 years.     

A Joint Test of the Rational Expectations-Permanent Income Hypothesis under Seasonal Cointegration

This study re-evaluates the validity of the joint rational expectations-permanent income hypothesis under the framework of seasonal cointegration using seasonally unadjusted quarterly data from Austria, Canada and Taiwan. Evidence is found that the consumption change only depends on the innovations of the income and the unemployment rate changes, and that agents are rational in forming their expectations, i.e., the joint hypothesis is supported by the data used. However, with the same data set, a similar test based on non-seasonal cointegration tends to reject the joint hypothesis, since the test ignores completely the possible stochastic seasonalities that may contain important information, as has been pointed out by Wallis (1974), embodied in the data.     

Threshold effects of financial status on the cost frontiers of financial institutions in nondynamic panels

This article applies Hansen's (1999, 2000) threshold regression model to estimate translog cost frontiers in the hope of shedding light on the banking industry's production processes and the extent of its Technical Efficiency (TE). The threshold technique allows for the existence of multiple technologies of production, distinguished by an exogenous threshold variable. Strong evidence of multiple technologies is found in the industry irrespective of which financial indicator, as constructed by factor analysis, defines the threshold variable. Cost savings and scale economies among the various underlying technologies are compared herein. We also highlight the differences between the threshold results and the conventional cost frontier.     

A study on long-run inefficiency levels of a panel dynamic cost frontier under the framework of forward-looking rational expectations

This paper aims to provide a theoretical underpinning of the dynamic efficiency model pioneered by [Ahn, S.C., Good, D.H., Sickles, R.C., 2000. Estimation of long-run inefficiency levels: A dynamic frontier approach. Econometric Reviews 19, 461–492]. In the context of a quadratic loss function this paper formulates a multi-period forward-looking rational expectations model on the evolution of the technical inefficiency level, which correctly produces a dynamic panel data model. The model is illustrated using panel data of 112 French banks. Encouraging evidence of superiority in favor of the model is reached. Substantial cost inefficiency prevails in this industry, where the constituent banks are characterized as having volatile adjustment speeds toward their long-run steady states. The sample banks exhibit increasing returns to scale and product-mix economies.     

Consistent estimation of technical and allocative efficiencies for a semiparametric stochastic cost frontier with shadow input prices

Conventional parametric stochastic cost frontier models are likely to suffer from biased inferences due to misspecification and the ignorance of allocative efficiency (AE). To fill up the gap in the literature, this article proposes a semiparametric stochastic cost frontier with shadow input prices that combines a parametric portion with a nonparametric portion and that allows for the presence of both technical efficiency (TE) and AE. The introduction of AE and the nonparametric function into the cost function complicates substantially the estimation procedure. We develop a new estimation procedure that leads to consistent estimators and valid TE and AE measures, which are proved by conducting Monte Carlo simulations.     

Imposing Regularity Conditions to Measure Banks’ Productivity Changes in Taiwan Using a Stochastic Approach

Asia-Pacific Financial Markets - This paper develops a stochastic approach to impose regularity properties on a directional output distance function (DODF) and an output distance function, which...     

Estimating Scale and Scope Economies with Fourier Flexible Functional Form – Evidence from Taiwan's Banking Industry

In this study the scale and scope economies for Taiwan's banking sector using panel data from 22 domestic banks for the period 1981–1997 is investigated quantitatively using both a Fourier flexible functional form, first proposed by Gallant (1981, 1982), and a translog function. This study's results favour the use of the former, based on tests of regression coefficients and on estimates of various economy measures. The Fourier evidence shows that only smaller banks exhibit increasing returns to scale, while larger banks exhibit decreasing returns to scale. Conversely, the translog indicates that all the sample groups continue to enjoy economies of scale. Banks in Taiwan exhibit scope diseconomies, which suggest that sample banks should continue efforts to diversify their financial products, which in turn could substantially reduce their average costs.