City Research Online

Abstract

Evidence of financial integration and convergence are considered of importance in assessing the outcome of EU deregulation policies aimed at improving the efficiency and performance of banking sectors. This paper evaluates the recent dynamics of bank cost efficiency by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Borrowing from the growth literature, we apply dynamic panel data models (GMM) to the concepts of β-convergence and σ-convergence to assess the speed at which banking markets are integrating. We also employ a partial adjustment model to evaluate convergence towards best practice. Results seem to provide supporting evidence of convergence of efficiency levels towards an EU average. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of an overall improvement of efficiency levels towards best practice.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Omega. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Omega Volume 38, Issue 5, October 2010, Pages 260–267, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2009.08.004
Publisher Keywords:	Efficiency; Convergence; Banking; Data envelopment analysis
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Finance
Related URLs:	Author
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

Export

Downloads