The Scale-Efficiency version of the Efficient-Structure Hypothesis and the Structure-Conduct-Performance Hypothesis find empirical support in German banking data from 1998 to 2002. Due to the acceptance of the two hypotheses and the existence of overall economies of scale, we conclude that...

This study aims to investigate the significance of adequately accounting for heterogeneity in banking efficiency. It compares different specifications of stochastic cost frontier models which attempt to account for bank heterogeneity in various ways. This study compares the estimated parameters...

This paper examines the volatility of banks equity weekly returns for six banks (coded B1 to B6) using GARCH models. Results reveal the presence of ARCH effect in B2 and B3 equity returns. In addition, the estimated models could not find evidence of leverage effect. On evaluating the estimated...

Although the probability of default (PD) modeling has reached a great maturity in both academia and business, for the Italian case we demonstrate that banks' available PD models would be misleading if today applied directly to Italian banks. We argue that what determines the PD of Italian banks,...

An extensive empirical literature has documented the positive growth effects of equity market liberalization. However, this line of research ignores the impact of financial integration on a category of firms crucial for economic development, i.e. the small entrepreneurial firms. This paper aims...

In this study, we assess whether banking system concentration is strongly linked to banks credit risk exposure. We use a sample of 138 commercial banks drawn from SADC countries between 1999 and 2005. The results exhibit no significant influence of concentration on four measures of credit...