''Afrique Centrale (CEMAC) and the level of bank competition at the regional level. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative … excess liquidity in the region. Other data also indicate that bank competition within the CEMAC as a region is limited …

This paper analyzes the relationship between oil price shocks and bank profitability. Using data on 145 banks in 11 oil …-exporting MENA countries for 1994-2008, we test hypotheses of direct and indirect effects of oil price shocks on bank profitability …. Our results indicate that oil price shocks have indirect effect on bank profitability, channeled through country …

banks can extract market power rents. We show that more bank competition results in lower economy-wide risk, lower bank … allocation and optimal levels of bank risk and capitalization. These results are at variance with those obtained by a large …

links changes in the financial environment and the distribution of future bank capital ratios. This forward …

the real economy. The study also runs an empirical exercise to estimate the costs of bank narrowness and draws policy …

firms in the non-financial sector. It finds that bank competition has an overall positive effect on firm creation. However … firms, it also finds that asymmetric information limits the overall positive effect of bank competition on firm creation …. Indeed, bank competition is less favorable to the emergence of new firms in industrial sectors where informational …