Testing the concentration-performance relationship in the Tunisian banking sector

This aim of this paper is to investigate whether concentration affects profitability of the Tunisian banking sector for the period 1980-2009. Our sample is made up of 9 banks and our empirical analysis is based panel data analysis. In this paper, profitability is measured by the conventional return on equities (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). In the robustness checks we add a third indicator of profitability which is net interest margin (NIM). The main results of the paper reveal that concentration had positive impacts on Tunisian banking profitability. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the adoption of industrial strategies by Tunisian banks were advantageous for the banking sector and for the economy as a whole.