Research into the benefits of mergers in small financial institutions, in particular credit unions, is sparse. This study helps to fill this gap by analyzing recent intense merger activity in New Zealand credit unions. The major driver for these mergers was not the usual reason of attempting to...

There is a considerable amount of research that seeks to determine the extent to which retail market participants exert market discipline on banks either through the price approach (the correlation of price to risk), or the quantity approach (the movement of funds in response to changes in...

This paper examines the selection of data source and econometric technique for studies of banking efficiency using translog cost functions. We examine the use of Seemingly Unrelated Regression estimation for a cost function, as against estimation using Ordinary Least Squares. Choice of cost data...

This paper was presented at the ISCR seminar 9 July2012 by Dr David Tripe.

This paper explores the extent of efficiency improvements achieved by New Zealand banks over the period 1996 to 2002, using data envelopment analysis (DEA), on a time-series, rather than cross-sectional basis. <p> Evidence is found for improvements in bank efficiency through time, some of which can...</p>

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate use of efficiency analysis as a technique for investigating bank safely and soundness. Design/methodology/approach – Three different data envelopment analysis (DEA) models were applied to set of data for the major New Zealand banks over a...

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that in the short history of New Zealand banking, political experimentation, based at first upon socialist ideology of the 1940s led to the nationalisation of The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), followed by a period of neo‐liberalism in the 1980s and early 1990s...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present competing theories that argue: that boards of directors of locally incorporated subsidiaries of trans‐national entities contribute positively to local operations; and that locally constituted boards are an unnecessary expense and can confound...

Purpose This paper aims to examine alternative methods for recording and treating costs in studies of bank efficiency. Design/methodology/approach This study used stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) models with core costs and total costs to estimate the cost efficiency of banks in two different...