Agency issues associated with different types of firm ownership are an area of concern in many banking systems where state-owned banks operate alongside mutual and private-sector institutions. This paper uses a variety of approaches to model cost and profit inefficiencies as well as technical...

This paper examines the evidence of cost efficiencies resulting from hypothetical mergers in the Italian banking market. The approach adopted is similar to that of Shaffer (1992, 1993) where bank mergers are simulated and then total costs are calculated using the hybrid translog methodology for...

"This paper analyses the relationship between capital, risk and efficiency for a large sample of European banks between 1992 and 2000. In contrast to the established US evidence we do not find a positive relationship between inefficiency and bank risk-taking. Inefficient European banks appear to...