Competition and efficiency in the MENA banking region: a non-structural DEA approach

The goal of this article is to empirically assess the relationship between competition and efficiency in the banking sector of Middle East and North African (MENA) countries spanning the period 1997–2011. To measure the level of competition, the article estimates the non-structural indicator known as the H-statistic, while the level of bank efficiency is estimated through the nonparametric methodology of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (BDEA), respectively. The empirical results are robust under six econometric methodologies, providing sufficient evidence for the presence of a one-way (negative) Granger causality, running from efficiency to competition. The empirical findings lead to the rejection of the ‘Efficient Structure Hypothesis’, implying that increases in competition do not precede increases in cost efficiency.