Recent cross-section studies have demonstrated a strong link between measures of corruption, bureaucratic quality, property rights, and other institutional variables, and economic growth. In this paper we build on previous research and present some empirical evidence on the direction of...

Motivated by the liberalisation and harmonisation of financial systems in Europe, we investigate whether the observed shift into non-interest income activities improves performance of small European credit institutions. Using a sample of 755 small banks for the period 1997–2003, we find no...

Motivated by the liberalisation and harmonisation of financial systems in Europe, we investigate whether the observed shift into non-interest income activities improves performance of small European credit institutions. Using a sample of 755 small banks for the period 1997-2003, we find no...

Previous studies that aim to determine factors impacting the deposit insurer's loss arising from bank failures use standard econometric techniques that assume the losses are homogeneously driven by the same set of explanatory variables: However, deposit insurers are particularly concerned about...

By assuming a Pareto-type distribution of bank sizes within banking systems, we investigate the effect of changes to Zipf's slope parameter (a) and the sample size to the behaviour of different concentration indexes, such as the 3-bank concentration ratio, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index and the...

Deposit insurers are particularly concerned about high-cost failures. When the factors driving such failures differ systematically from the determinants of low- and moderate-cost failures, a new estimation technique is required. Using a sample of more than 1,000 bank failures in the U.S. between...

Assuming a Pareto-type distribution of bank sizes, we investigate the effect of changes in Zipf's exponent (agrave;3B1) and the sample size on the behaviour of different concentration indices, such as the 3-bank concentration ratio, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index and the top 5%-concentration...

We use data for more than 2,600 European banks to test whether increased competition causes banks to hold higher capital ratios. Employing panel data techniques, and distinguishing between the competitive conduct of small and large banks, we show that banks tend to hold higher capital ratios...

Motivated by the liberalisation and harmonisation of financial systems in Europe, we investigate whether the observed shift into non-interest income activities improves performance of small European credit institutions. Using a sample of 755 small banks for the period 1997-2003, we find no...

A growing body of literature indicates that competition increases bank soundness. Applying an industrial organization based approach to large data sets for European and U.S. banks, we offer new empirical evidence that efficiency plays a key role in the transmission from competition to soundness....