We apply specifications of the random parameters stochastic frontier cost function model to estimate bank efficiency. This class of model appears to resolve the long standing problem of confounding inefficiency and heterogeneity. Mean cost efficiencies from random models are higher by as much as...

The Luenberger productivity indicator is employed to estimate and decompose productivity change in a sample of cooperative banks operating in 10 EU member states. An average annualised productivity growth of 2.59% is reported between 1996 and 2003, though there is heterogeneity in growth rates...

This paper proposes a framework for benchmarking European co-operative banks and the rationalization of their operational activities. The analysis is based on the Luenberger productivity indicator. A key advantage of this method is that it allows for both input contraction and output expansion...

We employ the Luenberger productivity indicator to estimate productivity growth and its decomposition into technical change and efficiency change components for savings banks sectors in 10 EU countries between 1996 and 2003. The Luenberger indicator requires less restrictive assumptions than...

This paper confirms the importance of bank performance to the credit-lending channel of monetary policy in the countries of the EMU and particularly in Portugal during recent years. The paper's main innovations are (1) its use of macro and microeconomic statistical data; (2) the introduction of...

Purpose – This paper seeks to contribute to the study of the link between financial intermediation and economic growth in the context of the European Union and particularly in the context of the integration of new member-states. Design/methodology/approach – Panel fixed and dynamic...

MacKay R. R. and Williams J. (2005) Thinking about need: public spending on the regions, Regional Studies 39 , 815-828. The UK Treasury accepts that need is the correct guide to spending on public services in different parts of the UK. But the formula used to decide changes in devolved spending...

W ILLIAMS J. and G ARDENER E. P. M. (2003) The efficiency of European regional banking, Reg. Studies 37 , 321-330. Financial deregulation may segment European banking into pan-national and regional tiers. Regional banking must finance productive investment to facilitate regional economic growth....

The Handbook of International Banking provides a clearly accessible source of reference material, covering the main developments that reveal how the internationalization and globalization of banking have developed over recent decades to the present, and analyses the creation of a new global...