As in other sectors, competition in finance matters for allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency. Theory suggests …, however, that unfettered competition is not first best given the special features of finance. I review these analytics and … describe how to assess the degree of competition in markets for financial services. Existing research shows that the degree of …

This paper investigates the degree of bank competition in the euro area, the U.S. and U.K. before and after the recent … financial crisis, and revisits the issue whether the introduction of EMU and the euro have had any impact on bank competition …. The results suggest that the level of bank competition converged across euro area countries in the wake of the EMU. The …