Market share instability in Brazilian industry: a dynamic panel data analysis

The paper investigates market share instability in the context of Brazilian industry for the 1986–1998 period. The paper proposes the use of panel data unit root tests to access market share instability for a sample of industrial firms from different sectors and therefore generalizes related time series unit root tests proposed by Gallet and List (2001 Gallet, CA and List, JA. 2001. Market share instability: an application of unit root tests for the cigarette industry. Journal of Economics and Business, 53: 473–80.  ). The results mostly indicate that one cannot reject the hypothesis of market share instability and therefore there exist some degree of market rivalry in the Brazilian case.     

Growth,profits and foreign ownership in the Brazilian banking industry

The deregulation of the financial markets and their progressive globalization has favoured the internationalization of banking. Moreover, during the international financial crisis, the presence of foreign banks has increased in countries experiencing faster economic growth, such as Brazil. In this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the growth and profitability of the financial institutions in Brazil, taking into account the possible non-linearity of the relationship, the differences between Brazilian and foreign institutions and the effect of the crisis. Our results indicate that the entry of foreign institutions has a direct effect on the Brazilian banking industry.     

Measuring the degree of competition in Pakistan’s banking industry: an empirical analysis

Pakistan’s banking industry has gone through significant transformation from being in a heavily state regulated and controlled environment to a more liberalized market structure in recent years. This liberalization of banking industry in Pakistan has raised concerns over the dominant banks’ exercise of market power on account of increase in market concentration due to mergers and acquisitions, high profitability in banking sector and increasing interest rate spread. Present study therefore explicitly tests the market conduct of banks using quarterly panel data of 30 banks from 2004 to 2012 and employing Panzar–Rosse, Bresnahan–Lau, Hall–Roeger and Boone’s approaches to study market power. Our findings suggest that Pakistan’s banking industry is working in a competitive environment and we find little evidence for the exercise of market power by the dominant banks. Our results remain robust across all these approaches to measure market power. These findings indicate that the liberalization and deregulation of Pakistan’s banking industry has been successful in improving the competitive conditions in the market.     

Determinants of firm start-up size in the Brazilian industry: an empirical investigation

The article investigates the determinants of newly created industrial establishments in Brazil in 1997 taking as reference explanatory variables referring to market structure and industry dynamics, stronger effects are detected for larger firms. Minimum efficient scale, industry size, industry growth and turbulence display the expected positive effects on firm size, but the intensity of those are more pronounced for larger firms. The suboptimal scale variable, on the other hand, exhibits a counterintuitive positive effect and perhaps other types of barriers to entry that are not related to scale aspects may be important in the Brazilian case.     

Branching and competition in the European banking industry

In this study branching costs and competitiveness of European banks are measured by fitting a monopolistic competition model to a representative sample drawn from nine EEC banking industries in the period from 1990 to 1996. In the theoretical model, banks decide strategically the size of their branching network anticipating the degree of competition faced on interest rates. From the structural equations of the model an econometric test is derived in order to measure branching costs and degree of competition in banking services. The empirical analysis captures their changing over time together with the impact of various European directives aiming at deregulating the banking industry. Furthermore the study shows persistence of segmentation acoss EEC banking industries.     

The Brazilian Soccer Championship: an efficiency analysis

This article analyses the top Brazilian football league from 2003 to 2011 by estimating a cost function and using a stochastic frontier model. Among the covariates, the number of fans per club and club remoteness is taken into account. The Brazilian clubs are then ranked according to their technical efficiency during the 2000–2011 period. Based on the results, the policy implication is presented, and the economic implications arising from the study are also considered.     

Market orientation and performance in the biotechnology industry: An exploratory empirical analysis

The purpose ofthis study was to conduct an exploratory investigation into the link between market orientation and business performance in the biotechnology sector. Based on the nature and character of the biotechnology industry, a multi-faceted scale of market orientation was derived from a preuiously tested and refined measure of the construct. Data were generated from 62 biotechnolog firms and a variety of market orientation-performance relationships were investigated, alongside other potential effects on the different dimensions of business performance. The findings indicate that market orientation is positively and signficanttly associated with three of the four performance measures examined. Implications of our findings for biotechnology industry managers are discussed and limitations of the study as well as future research directions are addressed.     

Assessing the competition in Angola’s banking industry

This article analyses the level of competition in Angola’s banking industry using the Panzar–Rosse model with data from 2005 to 2014. Competition is a vital aspect of the banking market and therefore it is central to policy-making. The results reveal that Angola banking competition is monopolist and therefore lower competition is found in Angola banks. Policy implication is derived.     

Structure and performance in the Portuguese banking industry in the nineties

In this paper we study the structure-performance relationship in the Portuguese banking industry during the nineties. The hypothesis of pure collusion, efficient structure, modified efficient structure and hybrid collusion/efficiency are tested using a direct measure of efficiency. Our results endorse the hybrid collusion/efficiency hypothesis in the first half of the nineties. However, after 1994 results lend some support to the modified efficient structure hypothesis. Competition at the local level remains important throughout the decade, suggesting that banks in less competitive local markets exert some level of market power and exhibit superior performances.Received: November 1999, Accepted: February 2003, JEL Classification: C21, L11Correspondence to: Victor MendesThe authors wish to thank Pedro Pita Barros and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. Financial support from JNICT - Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica (grant PCSH/ECO/938/95) is acknowledged.     

Efficiency in banking: a meta-regression analysis

One learns two main lessons from studying the great quantity of banking efficiency literature. These lessons regard the heterogeneity in results and the absence of a comprehensive review aimed at understanding the reasons for this variability. Surprisingly, although this issue is well-known, it has not been systematically analyzed before. In order to fill this gap, we perform a Meta-Regression-Analysis (MRA) by examining 1661 efficiency scores retrieved from 120 papers published over the period 2000–2014. The meta-regression is estimated by using the Random Effects Multilevel Model (REML) because it controls for within- and between-study heterogeneity. The analysis yields four main results. First, parametric methods yield lower levels of banking efficiency than nonparametric studies. This holds true even after controlling for the approach used in selecting the inputs and outputs of the frontier. Secondly, we show that banking efficiency is highest when using the value-added approach, followed by estimates from studies based on the intermediation method, whereas those based on the hybrid approach are the lowest. Thirdly, efficiency scores are also determined by the quality of studies and the number of observations and variables used in the primary papers. As far as the effects of sample size, dimension and quality of papers are concerned, there are significant differences in sign and magnitude between parametric and nonparametric studies. Finally, cost efficiency is found to be higher than profit efficiency. Interestingly, MRA results are robust to the potential outliers in efficiency and sample size distributions.     

Privatization and optimal share release in the Chinese banking industry

This paper establishes a mixed oligopoly model to explore how the government determines the percentage of shares of the state-owned banks to be released to foreign investors under the goal of seeking to maximize social welfare. The theoretical model finds that the release of shares of state-owned banks to foreign investors will reduce the outputs of the state-owned banks. The direction of the change in the profitability of the state-owned banks depends on the percentage of the shares released. The direction of the changes in the levels of social welfare also varies. If the gap in production efficiency between the state-owned banks and private banks is not large enough, we can be certain that a partial release of shares is the government's best policy.     

Service quality in Brazilian mobile telephony: an efficiency frontier analysis

The mobile telephony sector is characterized by the dynamic interplay of rapid changes in technology and an apparently growing competition, as indicated by the fierce nonprice competition, and is yet associated with the entry of new operating companies in some cases. In this context, a relevant and neglected issue is the assessment of how service quality responded to an increasingly competitive environment. This study utilizes data envelopment analysis to assess the quality efficiency of mobile telephony companies in Brazil during the 2000–2003 period. Window analysis was conducted for the entire period, taking as reference different quality indicators pertaining to different forms of complaints and calls completed and interrupted. The efficiency measurement was made feasible by interpreting the indicators reflecting a positive dimension of quality as outputs and those reflecting negative aspects of quality as inputs. Given potential heterogeneities across firms that relate to the frequency band and to the technology (time division multiple access technology and code division multiple access technology among others), this article considered adjusted efficiency scores. The Tobit model for censored data was estimated to control for the aforementioned aspects. Rescaled residuals from the econometric estimation produced efficiency scores for service quality. The evidence indicated an overall improvement in efficiency over time. Nonparametric tests were consistent with a positive evolution of quality over time even for shorter subperiods.     

Efficiency of labour use in the Swedish banking industry: a stochastic frontier approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the deregulation of the Swedish banking industry in the mid-1980s, and the consequent banking crisis, on productive efficiency and productivity growth in the industry. An unbalanced panel of Swedish banks is studied over the period, 1984 to 1995. A total of 1275 observations are analysed for 156 banks that were observed for between two and twelve years. We adopt a translog stochastic frontier model to estimate the labour-use requirements in terms of the variables, loans, deposits, guarantees, number of branches and total inventories, together with the year of observation. The inefficiency effects in the labour-use frontier are modelled in terms of the number of branches, total inventories, the type of bank and year of observation. The technical inefficiencies of labour use of Swedish banks were found to be significant, with mean inefficiencies per year estimated to be between about 8 and 15 per cent over the years of study. However, the confidence interval predictions for these inefficiencies were found to be quite wide. First version received: August 1998/Final version received: April 2000     

The duration of new firms in banking: an application of Cox regression analysis

This paper studies the duration of two cohorts of entrants in the Italian financial intermediation industry. Using the Cox (1972) Proportional Hazards Model, it analyses the link between duration of each newborn firm and its start-up size, as well as a series of industry-specific characteristics. It emerges that not only did regulatory reform in 1990 result in a process of branch proliferation and industry concentration, but it also set in motion a pre-entry selection mechanism. Conversely, before completion of the regulatory reform, in 1989, entry was possible even for very small firms, and larger new entrants survived longer than their smaller counterparts, and this independently of the features of spatial and structural competition. First version received: Nov. 98/final version received: Oct. 99     

Bank size,competition and risk in the Turkish banking industry

This paper investigates the impact of bank size and competition on earnings volatility and insolvency risk using quarterly data for commercial banks operating in the Turkish banking industry for the period 2002Q1–2012Q2. The main result of the paper indicates that bank size and earnings volatility are negatively related, suggesting that larger banks are less risky. The results also indicate that competition measured by the Boone indicator increases earnings volatility. The results further suggest that higher capitalized banks, banks with a higher share of non-interest income in total income and efficient banks face lower earnings volatility. Finally, insolvency risk measured by Z-score and bank size are positively related, suggesting that larger banks are more stable.     

Market power versus efficiency under uncertainty: conventional versus Islamic banking in the GCC

In this article we estimate the effect of concentration on intermediation margins in Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) Islamic and conventional banking under the assumption that margins are uncertain. The empirical model, which we formally derive from an expected utility maximization problem, allows us to test for risk aversion as well as competitive conduct in loan and the deposit markets. The model also yields an expression showing that the effect of concentration on margins is the sum of its respective effects on market power, marginal cost of intermediation and marginal cost of uncertainty. The expression allows us to test whether concentration is welfare enhancing, reducing or neutral. We find Islamic banks to be risk-averse and conventional banks to be risk-neutral. We also find that concentration is welfare-neutral in Islamic loans and deposits, welfare-enhancing in conventional loans and welfare-neutral in conventional deposits. We used Nonlinear Two-Stage Least Squares (N2SLS) and Nonlinear Three-Stage Least Squares (N3SLS) to check for robustness.