Inhaltliches Fundament zahlreicher Stabilitäts-, Produktivitäts- und Rentabilitätsanalysen zur Bankenwirtschaft ist die präzise Einschätzung der Wettbewerbsverhältnißse. Aus theoretischer Sicht steht hierzu eine ganze Reihe an alternativen Konzepten zur Verfügung. Gleichwohl gestaltet...

Our paper deals with empirical and technical problems to derive (conventional) cost functions in banks and other financial institutions. One main reason is based on the still ongoing discussion on inputs and outputs of financial intermediaries. A second obstacle is due to the fact that most of...

Summary Although recent experiences made during the ongoing international financial crisis call for smaller entities in banking systems, consolidation still takes place in many industrialized economies. The often stretched argument that large banks are able to establish economies of scale as...

Economic studies on the degree of competition (DC) in banking systems use various measures which are subsumed under the 1) structure- (e.g. Herfin­dahl-Hirschman index), 2) conduct- (e.g. Boone indicator) or 3) performance-oriented approach (e.g. Lerner index). Yet, the respective empirical...