Determinants of bank efficiency: Evidence from a semi-parametric methodology

In this paper, we use a semi-parametric two-stage model to examine the effect of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank efficiency. This method, proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007), relaxes several deficiencies of previous two-stage analyses, which regress non-parametric estimates of bank efficiency on exogenous determinants. In particular, we propose a bootstrap procedure to be used in the second stage and we compare the results obtained to the equivalents of a Tobit model. We suggest that the Tobit regressions inaccurately provide insignificant estimates for the effect of bank size, industry concentration and economic investment on bank efficiency, a fact that illustrates the power of the new method. Since the effect of these determinants has been ambiguous in previous literature, this may be a desideratum for future research.