Technical efficiency and scale efficiency in the Italian banking sector: a non-parametric approach

Measures of technical and scale efficiencies are derived in the Italian banking industries by implementing non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis on a cross section of 174 Italian banks taken in 1991. The methodology of the parametric and non-parametric approaches to measure efficiency are discussed. The existence of both technical and allocative efficiency is established. This result is robust to modifications in the specification of inputs and outputs suggested by the Intermediation Approach and by the Asset Approach. In implementing both the Intermediation and the Asset Approach the traditional specification of inputs is modified to allow an explicit role for financial capital. In addition, regression analysis is used on a bank-specific measure of inefficiency to investigate determinants of banks' efficiency. Efficiency is best explained by productive specialization, size and, to a lesser extent, by location.