A note on cost structure and economies of scale in Greek banking

This note studies the Greek banking industry in 1980–1989 in order to estimate a representative cost structure functional form and search for economies of scale. The constructed model uses a translogarithmic cost function that includes the size of assets, capital, labor and technological progress. By using this model, which has been used by Benston et al. (1982), Hunter and Timme (1986) and others, we have been able to estimate for the first time an econometric form of the costs in Greek banking, and we have been able to investigate economies of scale in the Greek banking industry. Although operating-cost scale economies do exist, total-cost scale economies were not present. This has been shown through the utilization of a large sample of pooled data of all Greek banks for a period of ten years, and the use of two other samples of large and small banks. Moreover, by exploiting the properties of the model, we shall be able to show whether technological progress has been a factor which lowers bank costs.