Most bank efficiency studies that use stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) employ each bank’s own implicit input price when estimating efficient frontiers. But the theoretical foundation of most studies is a cost minimisation and/ or profit maximisation problem assuming perfect input markets. At...

We analyze the stability of efficiency rankings of German universal banks between 1993 and 2004. First, we estimate traditional efficiency scores with stochastic cost and alternative profit frontier analysis. Then, we explicitly allow for different risk preferences and measure efficiency with a...

German banks experienced a merger wave throughout the 1990s. However, the success of bank mergers remains a continuous matter of debate. In this paper we suggest a taxonomy as how to evaluate post-merger performance on the basis of cost efficiency (CE). We categorise mergers a success that...

Internationale Vergleiche von Krankenhausleistungen sind bislang selten. Die vorliegende Analyse untersucht die Effizienz der Krankenhäuser in Sachsen und der Schweiz mittels der Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), einem Verfahren zur Ermittlung der effizienten Grenze. Dabei wird im Sinne eines...

The positive relation between financial development and economic growth seems to have weakened in recent years and when analyzing only developed countries. We suggest here that banks' relative ability to intermediate funds cost-efficiently is a quality-based measure of financial development that...

In this study, we test whether regional growth in 11 European countries depends on financial development and suggest the use of cost- and profit-efficiency estimates as quality measures for financial institutions. Contrary to the usual quantitative proxies for financial development, the quality...