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.     

A Fundamental Approach to Estimating Economies of Scale and Scope of Financial Products: The Case of Mutual Funds

We propose a Fundamental approach to estimate the economies of scale and scope for financial institutions offering multi-product lines. We first estimate pure economies of scale from its fundamental definition, which is the marginal cost reduction that is to be achieved by single product firms of increasing size that offer the same product. Similarly, we estimate the economies of scope from its fundamental definition, as the marginal cost reduction achieved by the addition of a new product line. Operationally, we compare the cost of operating a say, 3 product-line financial institution with the cost of operating a portfolios of companies that are synthetically created from a control sample of financial institutions offering fewer, such as 2 and 1 similar product lines. When this approach is applied to mutual funds data, we find economies of scale for some fund type. The evidence on marginal cost economies due to increasing scope is rather weak. The results have practical implications for potential organizers and current management of investment companies.     

Management Information Needs and Perceptions in Smaller Charities: An Exploratory Study

This article explores the extent and nature of management information needs of trustees, as perceived by selected trustees of smaller charities. It links these perceptions to questions concerning charity performance, drawing on assumptions in the literature (often implicit) that the quality of management information can be gauged. Also, that there is a corresponding link between meeting management information needs and improving organisational performance. The research methodology comprised a general pilot study and trustee survey, followed by accounts analysis and in-depth interviews in selected charities. From this, vignettes of trustees' perceptions were drawn up and case study accounts of three charities' approach to trusteeship, management information handling strategies, and self-assessment of performance were developed. The study discovered the existence of an 'expectations gap'between what charity trustees are supposed to do and what they can actually achieve.     

基于规模经济和技术进步两种效应的商业银行效率研究

利用超对数成本函数,从规模经济和技术进步角度,对中国商业银行1995到2005年的效率进行实证表明,一方面,中国商业银行业存在着规模经济和技术进步正效应,这主要得益于股份制商业银行;另一方面,国有商业银行的规模不经济和技术进步负效应,导致中国商业银行业的效率较低.因此,要保持中国商业银行业效率的不断提高,必须压缩国有商业银行的规模,加快股份制商业银行的发展,改善商业银行的治理结构.完善金融人才的培养机制.     

Size and Administration Costs in the Voluntary Sector: A Note

Despite the recent major changes to regulation of the voluntary sector as a result of the Charities Acts 1992 and 1993 the independent Commission on the Future of the Voluntary Sector has now suggested further major changes in the definition and control of the sector. This paper looks at the growth of registered charities during this decade compared with the decline in the number of registered companies and examines evidence on economies of scale in the charities. Possibly charities should be encouraged to promote mergers and acquisitions as a means to greater efficiencies in charitable activity.     

基于TCF函数的中国城市商业银行规模经济探究

通过收集52家城商行年度报告数据,建立超越对数成本函数（TCF）,得出规模经济系数,进而判断我国城商行的规模经济效应。同时,建立规模因子与资产规模的散点图,得出城商行的规模经济变动趋势,并据此分别得出不同资产规模的城商行发展战略。     

The Structure of External Financing Costs and the Economies of Scale View: New Evidence from Seasoned Equity Offerings in Germany

This paper is focused on the cost of raising equity capital in Germany. In the spirit of AltinkiliÇ and Hansen (2000) it challenges the conventional wisdom that flotation costs are characterised by economies of scale. For a sample of 120 SEOs on the German capital market over the years 1993–98 it is found that average total flotation costs amount to 1.61% of gross proceeds, while average underwriting fees are about 1.32%. Moreover, it turns out that flotation costs rise the larger the free float of the company is and the larger the share of stocks offered within a firm commitment cash offering is. As far as the economies of scale view is concerned, we do not find clear evidence in favour of decreasing marginal flotation costs. Moreover, fixed costs seem not to be very high in that they account on average for not more than 14–24% of total flotation costs or total underwriting fees, respectively.     

Governance and Funds Allocation in United States Medical Research Charities

We examine boards of directors of medical research charities and find that medical charities spend less on program activities and more on fund-raising when the executive director of the charity serves on the board of directors, especially when the board is small. Executive salaries are also higher at charities where management is represented on the board. Management and general expenses and fund balances are, however, unrelated either to the presence of an insider on the board or to the size of the board.     

How Issue Size, Risk, and Complexity are Influencing External Financing Costs: German IPOs Analyzed from an Economies of Scale Perspective

This paper is focused on the cost of raising capital in Germany. A cross-sectional analysis of flotation cost data for 117 IPOs over the years 1993–1998 is presented. We find average flotation costs to be 7.77 percent of gross proceeds, while underwriting fees average 5.01 percent. Our results extend the literature in two important directions. First, contrary to the conventional economies of scale view we find marginal spreads to be rather constant in gross proceeds and to be higher for more risky and more complex offerings. Fixed costs amount to 5 to 9 percent of underwriting fees. Second, by applying a principal component analysis we find issue size, an issuer risk factor, and an offering method complexity factor to have an economicaly meaningful impact on underwriting fees.     

Scale Economies in Credit Unions: Accounting for Subsidies Is Important

In 1998, the Credit Union Services Corporation Australia Limited (CUSCAL) recommended that Australian credit unions with assets below $5 million should consider merging with larger credit unions. This industry position is at odds with empirical studies, which find little evidence of increasing returns to scale in credit unions. However, an important bias in previous studies of scale economies in credit unions has been the omission of credit union subsidies. This paper shows that the failure to account for subsidies biases the results toward finding diseconomies of scale. After correcting for the subsidy bias, there is very strong evidence of increasing returns to scale in a sample of New South Wales credit unions, supporting the industry recommendation.     

Institutional Reforms,EU Accession,and Bank Efficiency in Transition Economies: Evidence from Bulgaria

This paper examines the efficiency of Bulgarian banks and its determinants over the period 1999-2007. The levels of technical, allocative, and cost efficiency are estimated using a nonparametric methodology and then regressed on a number of bankspecific, institutional, and EU-related factors. The findings indicate that foreign banks were more efficient than domestic private banks, although the gap between them narrowed over time. State-owned banks ranked last, but their privatization resulted in efficiency gains. Capitalization, liquidity, and enterprise restructuring enhanced bank efficiency, whereas banking reforms had an adverse effect. The Treaty of Accession and EU membership were associated with significant efficiency improvements.     

Banking Mergers: The Impact of Financial Liberalization on the Taiwanese Banking Industry

The objective of this paper is to examine the nature of the Taiwanese banking sector and to analyze the impact of financial liberalization on the Taiwanese banking industry. We present empirical evidence to show that the recent wave of bank mergers observed in other countries is also suitable for Taiwan. Based on empirical results for overall economies of scale and expansion path subadditivity, Taiwanese banks should obtain the benefit of scale economies by merging with other banks rather than expanding by opening more branches. Furthermore, we show that the Relative Market Power hypothesis—which postulates that greater market shares lead to higher profitability—finds empirical support in Taiwanese banking data after financial reforms were enacted.     

Industry Distributional Characteristics of Financial Ratios: An Acquisition Theory Application

This study explores the importance of capturing industry‐specific distributional characteristies in analyses based on financial ratios. As a test case, the study replicates Palepu (1986), who employs financial ratios in logit models to investigate the usefulness of six acquisition hypotheses in predicting takeover targets. Without adjustment for industry‐specific distributional characteristics, this study's findings are only consistent with one of the six acquisition hypotheses. After adjusting for distributional properties, the results are consistent with four of the six acquisition hypotheses. Furthermore, the adjusted model produces a classification accuracy significantly greater than chance, as well as significantly greater than that observed for the unadjusted model.     

The Structure of Banking Systems in Developed and Transition Economies

The paper empirically analyses the determinants of banking system structure (as measured by bank assets, number, branches and employees) for 26 developed OECD countries. The estimated regressions are then applied to 23 transition economies, to obtain benchmarks for the efficient structure of their banking systems. The actual and benchmark measures of banking structure are compared to evaluate the state of banking system development, including the computation of a measure of 'banking system convergence'. The results are objective and replicable multidimensional measures of banking system development for the transition economies.     

我国国有商业银行与股份制商业银行规模经济的比较分析:1995-2005

本文以我国1995-2005年的银行数据为样本,比较分析一直以来都让世人所关注的我国不同所有制商业银行的规模经济问题.在介绍国内外有关银行业规模经济问题研究的文献综述基础上,通过依据大量相关具体数据对我国银行业的市场结构及效益问题进行经验性的判断比较,最后运用超越对数成本函数对我国国有商业银行与股份制商业银行的规模经济问题进行实证比较分析,并得出结论:从总体上看,我国商业银行规模系数变化不大,但近几年来在规模效率方面,国有商业银行相对于股份制商业银行来说进步更为显著.     

我国保险业的规模效率和规模经济估算

本文利用基于数据包络分析方法（DEA）的规模报酬不变模型（CRS）和规模报酬可变模型（VRS）,对我国主要保险公司规模效率和规模经济进行了分析。研究结果表明,我国保险业存在着规模经济现象,但似乎不存在最佳规模点;保险业的规模效率逐年下降,保险公司之间的规模效率差异在拉大,已成为保险业效率下降的主要原因。     

Challenges of Fiscal Policy in Emerging and Developing Economies

This article presents a systematic analysis of the availability and use of fiscal space in emerging and developing economies. We report two major results. First, emerging and developing economies built fiscal space in the run-up to the Great Recession of 2008–2009, which was then used for stimulus. Since then, fiscal space has shrunk and remains narrow as these economies have taken advantage of historically low interest rates. Second, fiscal policy in emerging and developing economies has become countercyclical (or less procyclical), i.e., “graduated,” since the 1980s, as most clearly demonstrated during the Great Recession. The move towards graduation is most pronounced for those economies with greater fiscal space, which suggests that fiscal space matters for a government’s ability to implement countercyclical fiscal policy.     

Inflation Triggers in Transition Economies: Their Evolution and Specific Features

Analysis of thirty inflation episodes in sixteen European transition economies, using the probit panel model with fixed effects, uncovers inflation triggers that overlap with those obtained in either developing or developed countries or both. However, we found some transition-specific features. Thus, the relative contribution of the triggers evolves as transition progresses, such that the early dominance of the output gap, the fiscal deficit, and elections are subsequently subdued by a rise in food and oil prices, the exchange rate regime, and the current account deficit. The last two triggers could be linked to deep financial integration in Europe and the consequent large flow of capital toward European transition economies in the 2000s, a phenomenon not observed in any other part of the world. In addition, the exchange rate regime as an inflation starter in transitional Europe may be due to its convergence with developed Europe and the resulting real appreciation of currency.     

The Response of Bank Retail Rates to Money Market Rates in the BRIC Economies: An Application of the Disaggregated GETS Model

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interest rate transmission mechanism for the emerging BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). We analyze the way interbank rates are transmitted to the bank retail rates, and we test the symmetry hypothesis. A disaggregated general-to-specific model is applied for estimating interest rate pass-through and examining whether retail rates respond symmetrically or asymmetrically to upward/downward interbank rate changes. Overall, our empirics show evidence of sluggish and incomplete pass-through from market rates to bank loan and deposit rates. We show that banks' speed of upward and downward adjustment behavior is symmetric in both loan and deposit markets.     

对我国显性国债规模及风险的认识和分析

国债风险可归纳为数量风险、金融风险和使用风险。通过分析,建议从数量的确定、偿还期限的安排、运行的规范化、国债资金使用的监督等方面来防范我国的国债风险。