Economists have long debated the relationships between market structure of banking sector and the profitability. General consensus asserts that more concentrated market is associated with higher profitability: banks with higher market share generally achieve higher profits. This empirical...

Italian Abstract: Nello scorso decennio anche in Italia, come in tutti i principali paesi industrializzati, sono cresciuti sia i finanziamenti erogati dalle banche sia il ricorso ai mercati azionari e obbligazionari. La struttura finanziaria delle imprese si è orientata maggiormente verso...

Italian banks are characterized by deep efficiency inequality across size, location, Cooperative Credit Banks, and Limited Companies. Moreover, non-performing loans are higher in the South than elsewhere. In view of these evidences we asked: is the efficiency gap of the southern banks (and...