An efficiency analysis of European banks considering hierarchical technologies

This article, introduces the notion of hierarchical technologies in measuring banking efficiency, which arise from type- and country-specific characteristics of European banks. Adopting a <italic>meta-metafrontier</italic> framework, efficiency and technology gaps are measured for a sample of commercial, savings and cooperative European banks. In a hierarchical setting of banking technologies, the results reveal significant technology gaps among national banking systems, while minor technology gaps are identified among bank types within each country.