The Impact of Corporate Governance on the Technical Efficiency of Banks in Pakistan

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and technical efficiency of listed commercial banks of Pakistan over the period 2008-2015. The study employs a two-stage methodology. In the first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been used to compute the technical efficiency of banks. In the second stage, random-effect Tobit regression is used to examine the impact of corporate governance (measured through board size, board independence, board diligence, ownership concentration and ownership type) on the technical efficiency of banks. It is observed that there is a mixed trend in the technical efficiency of commercial banks of Pakistan during the period 2008-2015. During 2008-2010, a decrease in average technical efficiency of banks was observed, and this may be due to the global financial crisis. Then an increase in average technical efficiency was observed, which means that the banks were recovering steadily. In the second stage, the results of random-effects Tobit regression show that ownership concentration has a positive and significant impact on technical efficiency. The firms with presence of foreign ownership are more efficient than local firms. No statistically significant relationship was observed between board meeting, board size, executive directors and technical efficiency. Among the control variables, bank’s age was found to be positively and significantly, and bank’s size was found to be negatively and significantly related to technical efficiency