Impact of Liberalization and Globalization on Productivity in Indian Banking: A Comparative Analysis of Public Sector, Private, and Foreign Banks

Although dominated by public sector banks, India already had a significant presence of private domestic banks and foreign banks. What the banking reforms have done is to create a more level playing field where banks of different ownership types compete within a new set of broad (and far more relaxed) regulations. Data on the performance of the three different categories of banks over the past two decades offer an opportunity to assess to what extent the regulatory changes have improved the productive efficiency of the banking sector in India. Apart from analyzing the standard descriptive measures of performance, this paper uses the nonparametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis to measure total factor productivity growth and its components to assess the impact of liberalization on different ownership categories of banks in India. The broad conclusion is that it is possible to promote financial soundness by introducing proper prudential norms and to improve operational efficiency without wholesale privatization by allowing competition between public, private and foreign banks. This can be a valuable lesson for other developing countries. JEL Classification: G21, C61 Key words: Banking Reforms, Data Envelopment Analysis, Efficiency Analysis