hypothesis. We estimate bank-specific Lerner indices as measures of competition and test if cost and profit efficiency are … or cost savings. We suggest a united approach to measure competition and efficiency simultaneously to test this … are small from an economical perspective. -- Savings banks ; competition ; efficiency ; quiet life hypothesis …

draw on a proprietary data set with detailed financials of all 457 regional savings banks in Germany, which have been … effects from mergers on banks' (cost) efficiency and profitability but fails to provide clear and consistent results. We are …

investigate which factors determine funding costs at local banks. Using a panel data set of more than 800 German local savings and … cooperative banks for the period from 1998 to 2004 we show that funding costs are not only driven by the relative share of … analysis we find strong and robust evidence that, ceteris paribus, smaller banks exhibit lower funding costs than larger banks …

strong evidence that in Germany merging savings banks do not significantly change the extent to which they lend to small … merger related effects on small business lending in Germany from a bank-level perspective. Furthermore, we estimate small …

substantial measurement error. In this paper, we examine the magnitude and direction of this error in cost and profit efficiency …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 …