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Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: the impact of credit risk, off-balance sheet activities, and international operations Fotios Pasiouras University of Bath School of Management Working Paper Series 2006.17 This working paper is produced for discussion purposes only. The papers are expected to be published in due course, in revised form and should not be quoted without the author’s permission.

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Page 1: Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek ... · Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: ... annual report of the Bank of Greece (2004),

Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: the impact of credit risk, off-balance sheet activities,

and international operations

Fotios Pasiouras University of Bath

School of Management Working Paper Series

2006.17 This working paper is produced for discussion purposes only. The papers are expected to be published in due course, in revised form and should not be quoted without the author’s permission.

Page 2: Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek ... · Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: ... annual report of the Bank of Greece (2004),

University of Bath School of Management Working Paper Series

School of Management

Claverton Down Bath

BA2 7AY United Kingdom

Tel: +44 1225 826742 Fax: +44 1225 826473

http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/research/papers.htm

2006

2006.01 Neil Allan and Louise Beer

Strategic Risk: It’s all in your head

2006.02 Richard Fairchild Does Auditor Retention increase Managerial Fraud? - The Effects of Auditor Ability and Auditor Empathy.

2006.03 Richard Fairchild Patents and innovation - the effect of monopoly protection, competitive spillovers and sympathetic

collaboration.

2006.04 Paul A. Grout and Anna Zalewska

Profitability Measures and Competition Law

2006.05 Steven McGuire The United States, Japan and the Aerospace Industry: technological change in the shaping of a political

relationship

2006.06 Richard Fairchild & Yiyuan Mai

The Strength of the Legal System, Empathetic Cooperation, and the Optimality of Strong or Weak

Venture Capital Contracts

2006.07 Susanna Xin Xu, Joe Nandhakumar and Christine Harland

Enacting E-relations with Ancient Chinese Military Stratagems

2006.08 Gastón Fornés and Guillermo Cardoza

Spanish companies in Latin America: a winding road

2006.09

Paul Goodwin, Robert Fildes, Michael Lawrence

and Konstantinos Nikolopoulos

The process of using a forecasting support system

2006.10 Jing-Lin Duanmu An Integrated Approach to Ownership Choices of MNEs in China: A Case Study of Wuxi 1978-2004

2006.11 J.Robert Branston and James R. Wilson

Transmitting Democracy: A Strategic Failure Analysis of Broadcasting and the BBC

2006.12 Louise Knight & Annie Pye

Multiple Meanings of ‘Network’: some implications for interorganizational theory and research practice

Page 3: Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek ... · Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: ... annual report of the Bank of Greece (2004),

2006.13 Svenja Tams Self-directed Social Learning: The Role of Individual Differences

2006.14 Svenja Tams Constructing Self-Efficacy at Work: A Person-Centered Perspective

2006.15 Robert Heath, David Brandt & Agnes Nairn

Brand relationships: strengthened by emotion, weakened by attention

2006.16 Yoonhee Tina Chang Role of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) and Capital Adequacy in Banking Structure and Competition

2006.17 Fotios Pasiouras Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: the impact of credit risk, off-balance

sheet activities, and international operations

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Estimating the technical and scale efficiency of Greek commercial banks: the impact of credit risk, off-balance sheet

activities, and international operations

Fotios Pasiouras*

School of Management, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

Abstract This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to investigate the efficiency of the

Greek commercial banking industry over the period 2000-2004. We examine the impact

of credit risk and off-balance sheet activities, an approach not undertaken in previous

studies in Greece, by using loan loss provisions and off-balance sheet items as

additional inputs/outputs. We also compare the traditional intermediation approach used

in previous studies with the recently proposed (in the context of DEA) profit-oriented

approach. Furthermore, we compare banks that undertake only domestic activities with

the ones that have expanded their operations abroad. Finally, we use Tobit regression to

explain the efficiency of banks. Our results indicate that the inclusion of loan loss

provisions as an input increases the efficiency scores, while off-balance sheet items do

not have a significant impact. The differences between the efficiency scores obtained

through the profit-oriented model and the ones developed through the intermediation

approach are in general small. Banks that have expanded their operations abroad appear

to be more efficient than the ones operating only at a national level. Higher

capitalization, loan activity, and market power increase the efficiency of banks. The

number of branches also has a positive significant impact on efficiency, whereas the

number of ATMs does not appear to influence efficiency. The results are mixed with

respect to variables indicating whether the banks are operating abroad through

subsidiaries or branches.

Keywords: Banks, DEA, Efficiency, Greece

JEL: G21, C24, C67, D61 * © Fotios Pasiouras, 2006, Tel: +44 1225 384 297, E-mail: [email protected]

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1. Introduction

Over the last years, the Greek banking sector has experienced a major restructuring.

Important changes that are frequently highlighted by both academics and practitioners

are the establishment of the single EU market, the introduction of the euro, the

internationalization of competition, the interest rate liberalization, the deregulation, and

the recent wave of mergers and acquisition.

The Greek banking has also experienced considerable improvements in terms of

communication and computing technology, as banks expanded and modernized their

distribution networks, which apart from the traditional branches and ATMs, now

include alternative distribution channels such as internet banking. As mentioned in the

annual report of the Bank of Greece (2004), in recent years, Greek banks have also

taken major steps towards upgrading their credit risk measurement and management

systems, by introducing credit scoring and probability default models. Furthermore,

they expanded their product/service portfolio to include activities such as insurance,

brokerage and asset management, and at the same time increased their off-balance sheet

operations and non-interest income.

Finally, another attribute that is worthwhile mentioning is the increased trend

towards globalization that focused on the wider market of Balkans (e.g Albania,

Bulgaria, FYROM1, Romania, Serbia) and added to the previously limited international

activities of Greek banks in Cyprus and USA. The performance of the subsidiaries

operating abroad is expected to have an impact on the performance of parent banks and

consequently on future decisions for further internationalisation attempts.

The purpose of the present study is to employ data envelopment analysis (DEA)

and re-investigate the efficiency of the Greek banking sector, while considering several

1 Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia

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of the issues discussed above. We therefore differentiate our paper from previous ones

that focus in the Greek banking industry2 and add insights in several respects, discussed

below.

First of all, we examine for the first time the impact of credit risk on the

efficiency of Greek banks by including loan loss provisions as an additional input as in

Charnes et al. (1990), Drake (2001), Drake and Hall (2003), and Drake et al. (2006)

among others. As Mester (1996) points out “Unless quality and risk are controlled for,

one might easily miscalculate a bank’s level of inefficiency; e.g. banks scrimping on

credit evaluations or producing excessively risky loans might be labelled as efficient

when compared to banks spending resources to ensure their loans are of higher quality”

(p. 1026). We estimate the efficiency of banks with and without this input to adjust for

different credit risk levels and examine its impact on efficiency.

Second, unlike previous studies in the Greek banking sector, we consider off-

balance sheet activities during the estimation of efficiency measures. Several recent

studies that examine the efficiency of banks, with data envelopment analysis or

stochastic frontier techniques, acknowledge the increased involvement of banks in non-

traditional activities and include either non-interest (i.e. fee) income (e.g. Lang and

Welzel, 1998; Drake, 2001; Tortosa-Ausina E., 2003) or off balance sheet items (e.g.

Altunbas et al., 2001; Altunbas and Chakravarty, 2001; Isik and Hassan, 2003a,b; Bos

and Kolari, 2005; Rao, 2005) as an additional output. However, despite their increased

importance for Greek banks, such activities have not been considered in the past. Again,

we estimate the efficiency of the banks in our sample with and without off-balance sheet

activities to observe whether it will have an impact on efficiency.

2 Previous studies that focus on the efficiency of the Greek banking sector are: Karafolas and Mantakas (1996), Noulas (1997), Christopoulos and Tsionas (2001), Christopoulos et al. (2002), Tsionas et al. (2003), Halkos and Salamouris (2004), Apergis and Rezitis (2004), Rezitis (2006). These studies are discussed in more detail in the next section.

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Third, we compare the results obtained from the intermediation approach that

has been followed in most recent studies in banks’ efficiency with a profit-oriented

approach that was recently proposed by Drake et al. (2006) in the context of DEA and is

in line with the approach of Berger and Mester (2003) in the context of their stochastic

frontier approach. This allows us to observe if different input/output definitions affect

efficiency scores.

Fourth, we compare the efficiency scores of Greek banks that have expanded

their operations abroad (i.e. international Greek banks, hereafter IGBs), with the ones of

Greek banks whose operations are limited in the domestic market3 (i.e. purely domestic

banks, hereafter PDBs). To the best of our knowledge, no study has undertaken such an

analysis in Greece. However, in a study of the Turkish banking sector, Isik and Hassan

(2002) found evidence that multinational domestic banks are superior to purely

domestic banks in terms of all efficiency measures (i.e. cost efficiency, allocative

efficiency, technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency) except for scale efficiency.

The conclusions drawn from our study could be useful to the managers of other Greek

banks or other medium-sized banking sectors in general, considering the

internationalization of their operations.

Fifth, we run a regression to explain the efficiency of banks, an approach that

has been followed only in two of the past studies in Greece (Christopoulos et al., 2002;

Rezitis, 2006). However, in our case we examine a most recent period that is after the

numerous changes outlined above. 3 One could argue that the IGBs are the large Greek banks, and we therefore actually comparing large versus small banks. While this argument would have a basis, this is obviously the case in numerous studies that compare various groups of banks either in terms of ownership such as state/private (e.g. Noulas, 1997), and foreign/domestic (e.g. Sturm and Williams, 2004; Kasman and Yildirim, 2006) or in terms of specialization such as commercial, savings, cooperative (e.g. Altunbas et al., 2001; Girardone et al., 2004). For example, domestic banks are in most cases quite larger than foreign banks operating in a country (i.e. subsidiaries), as commercial banks are usually larger than cooperative and savings banks. Noulas (1997) also mentions that the private banks in his sample are of much smaller size than the state ones. Hence, while one could kept in mind this note while interpreting the results, we do not believe that it reduces they usefulness of the study.

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The rest of the paper is as follows: Section 2 reviews the literature that focuses

on the efficiency of the Greek banking sector. Section 3 provides a brief discussion of

DEA. Section 4 presents the data and variables. Section 5 discusses the empirical

results, and Section 6 concludes the study.

2. Literature Review

Karafolas and Mantakas (1996) use a second-order translog cost function to estimate for

the first time an econometric form of the costs in the Greek banking and investigate

economies of scale. Using data for eleven banks from the period 1980-1989, they find

that although operating-cost scale economies do exist, total cost scale economies are not

present. Participation of the dataset in sub-samples by banks’ size (i.e. large and small

banks) and time periods (i.e. 1980-84, 1985-89) has not altered the results. Finally, the

results indicate that technical change has not played a statistically significant role in the

decrease of average cost.

Noulas (1997) examines the productivity growth of ten private and ten state

banks operating in Greece during 1991 and 1992, using the Malmquist productivity

index and the DEA method to measure efficiency. The author follows the

intermediation approach and finds that productivity growth averaged about 8%, with

state banks showing higher growth than private ones. The results also indicate that the

sources of the growth differ across the two types of banks. State banks’ productivity

growth is a result of technological progress, while private bank’s is a result of increased

efficiency.

Christopoulos and Tsionas (2001) estimate the efficiency in the Greek

commercial banking sector over the period 1993-1998 using homoscedastic and

heteroscedastic frontiers. They find an average technical efficiency about 80% for the

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heteroscedastic model and 83% for the homoscedastic one. They also find that both

technical and allocative inefficiencies decrease over time for smaller as well as larger

banks. The regression of inefficiency measures against a trend indicates that the

improvement in technical and allocative inefficiencies for small banks equal 19.7% and

39.1%, accordingly. The corresponding figures for large banks are 10.4% and 21.1%.

Christopoulos et al. (2002) examine the same sample with a multi-input, multi-

output flexible cost function to represent the technology of the sector and a

heteroscedastic frontier approach to measure technical efficiency. Regression of the

efficiency measures over various bank characteristics indicates that larger banks are less

efficient than smaller ones, as well as that economic performance, bank loans and

investments are positive related to cost efficiency.

In a latter study, Tsionas et al. (2003) use the same sample as in Christopoulos

and Tsionas (2001) and Christopoulos et al. (2002) but employ DEA to measure

technical and allocative efficiency, and the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity

approach to measure productivity change. The results indicate that most of the banks

operate close to the best market practices with overall efficiency levels over 95%. Large

banks appear to be more efficient than smaller ones, while allocative inefficiency costs

seem to be more important than technical inefficiency costs. They also document a

positive but not substantial technical efficiency change which is mainly attributed to

efficiency improvement for medium-sized banks and to technical change improvement

for large banks.

Halkos and Salamouris (2004) also use DEA but follow a different approach

than previous studies by using financial ratios as output measures and with no use of

input measures. The sample ranges between 15 and 18 banks depending on the year

under consideration. The results indicate a wide variation in average efficiency through

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the 1997-1999, and a positive relationship between size and efficiency. Furthermore,

there is non-systematic relationship between transfer of ownership through privatization

of public banks and last’s period performance.

Apergis and Rezitis (2004) specify a translog cost function to analyze the cost

structure of the Greek banking sector, the rate of technical change and the rate of growth

in total factor productivity. They use both the intermediation and the production

approach and a sample of six banks over the period 1982-1997. Both models indicate

significant economies of scale and negative annual rates of growth in technical change

and in total factor productivity.

Rezitis (2006) uses the same dataset but employs the Malmquist productivity

index and DEA to measure and decompose productivity growth and technical

efficiency, respectively. He also compares the 1982-92 and 1993-97 sub-periods, while

Tobit regression is employed to explain the differences in efficiency among banks. The

results indicate that the average level of overall technical efficiency is 91.3%, while

productivity growth increased on average by 2.4% over the entire period. The growth in

productivity is higher in the second sub-period and is being attributed to technical

progress, in contrast to improvements in efficiency that was the main driver until 1992.

Furthermore, during the second sub-period pure efficiency is higher, and scale

efficiency is lower, indicating that although banks achieved higher pure technical

efficiency, they moved away from optimal scale. The regression results indicate that

size and specialization have a positive impact on both pure and scale efficiency.

3. Methodology

From a methodological perspective, there are several approaches that can be used to

examine the efficiency of banks, such as Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), Thick

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Frontier Approach (TFA), Distribution Free Approach (DFA), and DEA. Berger et al

(1993), Berger and Humphrey (1997) and Goddard et al. (2001) provide key discussions

and comparison of these methods in the context of banking.

In the present study, following several recent studies we use DEA to estimate

the efficiency of banks4. We only briefly outline DEA here, while more detailed and

technical discussions can be found in Coelli et al. (1999), Cooper et al. (2000), and

Thanassoulis (2001).

DEA is a mathematical programming approach for the development of

production frontiers and the measurement of efficiency relative to the developed

frontiers (Charnes et al., 1978). The best-practice production frontier for a sample of

decision making units (DMUs) is constructed through a piecewise linear combination of

actual input-output correspondence set that envelops the input-output correspondence of

all DMUs in the sample (Thanassoulis, 2001). In their seminal study Charnes et al.

(1978) proposed a model that had an input orientation and assumed constant returns to

scale (CRS). However, CRS is only appropriate when all firms are operating at an

optimal scale. Nevertheless, as firms may not be operating at optimal scale due to

imperfect competition or constraints in finance, Banker et al. (1984) suggested the use

of variable returns to scale (VRS) that allows the calculation of technical efficiency

(TE) devoid of scale efficiency (SE) effects.

The DEA model can be either input or output-oriented. As Coelli et al. (1999)

point out the input-oriented technical efficiency measures address the question: “By how

much can input quantities be proportionally reduced without changing the output

quantities produced?” (p. 137). In contrast, the output-oriented measures of technical

efficiency address the question: “By how much can output quantities be proportionally 4 Examples of recent studies that use DEA are among others Haslem et al. (1999), Maudos et al. (2002a), Casu and Molyneux (2003), Drake and Hall (2003), Luo (2003), Ataullah et al. (2004), Hauner (2005), Ataullah and Le (2006), Casu and Girardone (2006), Drake et al. (2006).

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expanded without altering the input quantities used?” (p. 137). It should be mentioned

that the two measures always provide the same value under CRS but are unequal when

VRS is assumed. However, Coelli et al. (1999) mention that since linear programming

does not suffer from statistical problems as simultaneous equation bias, the choice of an

appropriate orientation is not as crucial as it is in the case of econometric orientation,

and it many instances, the choice of orientation has only a minor influence upon the

scores obtained (Coelli and Perelman, 1996). Most of the studies in banking, including

the present one, follow the input-oriented approach, although some studies adopt the

output-oriented approach (e.g. Ataullah et al., 2004; Ataullah and Le, 2006) or report

the results from both (e.g. Casu and Molyneux, 2003; Beccali et al., 2006).

One of the well-known advantages of DEA, which is relevant to our study, is

that DEA works particularly well with small samples. As Maudos et al. (2002a) point

out, “Of all the techniques for measuring efficiency, the one that requires the smallest

number of observations is the non-parametric and deterministic DEA, as parametric

techniques specify a large number of parameters, making it necessary to have available

a large number of observations.” (p. 511). Other advantages of DEA are that it does not

require any assumption to be made about the distribution of inefficiency and that it does

not require a particular functional form on the data in determining the most efficiency

decision making units (DMUs). One the other hand, the shortcomings of DEA are that it

assumes data to be free of measurement error and is sensitive to outliers5.

5While many studies that use DEA do not address the issue of sensitivity to outliers, others choose either to perform the analysis with and without the potential outliers and compare the results (e.g. Casu and Molyneux, 2003) or delete observations that are considered outliers (Isik and Hassan, 2002). For example, Havrylchyk (2006) deleted banks whose prices were below or above 1% or 99%. In the present study, considering the small number of observations, we decided to smooth figures above and below the 99% and 1% percentiles respectively, hence reducing the impact of outliers while retaining all observations in sample.

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4. Data and variables

Our sample consists of the universe of commercial banks6 with financial statements

available in Bankscope database of Bureau van Dijk’s company, operating in Greece

between 2000 and 20047. Supplementary data for the banks (e.g. staff number, number

of ATMs) were collected from the Hellenic Bank Association. The sample ranges

between 12 and 18 banks per year and consists of 78 observations in total.

As mentioned in several studies, there is an on-going debate in the banking

literature relative to the proper definition of inputs and outputs. The two main

approaches are the “production approach” and the “intermediation approach” (Berger

and Humphrey, 1997). The production approach assumes that banks produce loans and

deposit account services, using labour and capital as inputs, and the number and type of

accounts measure outputs. The intermediation approach views banks as financial

intermediates that collect purchased funds and use labour capital to transform these

funds to loans and other assets. Berger and Humphrey (1997) point out that neither of

these two approaches is perfect because they cannot fully capture the dual role of

financial institutions as providers of transactions/document processing services and

being financial intermediaries. They point out that the production approach may be

somewhat better for evaluating the efficiencies of branches of financial institutions and

the intermediation approach may be more appropriate for evaluating entire financial

institutions. Most recently, Drake et al. (2006) proposed the use of a profit-oriented

approach in a DEA context that is in line with the approach of Berger and Mester (2003)

in the context of their stochastic frontier approach. They point out that their results

6 On the basis of the classification available in Bankscope. 7 The study begins in 2000 for various reasons. First of all, this is the earliest year for which data were available in the online version of Bankscope to which we had access. Second, prior to 2000 the Greek banking industry witnessed a number of M&As that could complicate our analysis. Third, existing studies already provide evidence for various periods up to 1999. Data for 2005, that was the most recent year with available data, were not considered as the EU imposed the use of International Accounting Standards, and the data would not be comparable across the period of our analysis.

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support the argument of Berger and Mester (2003) that a profit-based approach is better

able to capture the diversity of strategic responses by financial firms in the face of

dynamic changes in competitive and environmental conditions.

In the present study, following most of the recent studies we adopt the

intermediation approach. However, we also compare the obtained results with the ones

of the profit-oriented approach suggested by Drake et al. (2006). We estimate five DEA

models in total (Table 1).

[Insert Table 1 Around Here]

Models 1 to 4 are based on the intermediation approach but different

inputs/outputs combinations are examined so as to explore the impact of credit risk and

off-balance sheet activities on bank efficiency. In Model 1, we select the following three

inputs: fixed assets, customer deposits & short term funding, and number of employees.

The two outputs of Model 1 are loans and other earning assets. Hence, this is a classical

model under the intermediation approach found in most studies. In Model 2, we

introduce off-balance sheet items as an additional output, to account for the fact that in

recent years banks are heavily involved in off-balance sheet activities. Model 3 is a re-

estimation of Model 1 but following Charnes et al. (1990), Drake (2001), Drake and

Hall (2003), and Drake et al. (2006) among others, includes loan loss provisions as an

additional input in the DEA model to account for credit risk8. Finally, Model 4 is a re-

8 Mester (1996), Altunbas et al. (2000) and Drake and Hall (2003) among others point out that failure to adequately account for risk can have a significant impact on relative efficiency scores. Berg et al. (1992) made the original observation and included nonperforming loans in a nonparmetric study of bank production, whereas Hughes and Mester (1993) applied the concept to parametric estimations (Berger and DeYoung, 1997). Some other studies use equity capital as a control for risk (e.g. Altunbas et al., 2001; Maudos et al., 2002b; Akhigbe and McNulty, 2003; Kasman and Yildirim, 2006). However, Laeven and Majnoni (2003) mention that risk should be incorporated into efficiency studies via the inclusion of loan loss provisions that is actually a cost required to build up loan loss reserves. Altunbas et al. (2000) and

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estimation of Model 1 that includes both off-balance sheet items and loan loss

provisions, to simultaneously account for off-balance sheet activities and credit risk.

Model 5 is the profit-oriented one, in which following Drake et al. (2006) revenue

components are defined as outputs and cost components as inputs. The three inputs

specified are employee expenses, non-interest expenses, and loan loss provisions. The

three outputs are net interest income, net commission income and other income. As

Drake et al. (2006) point out “from the perspective of an input-oriented DEA relative

efficiency analysis, the more efficiency units will be better at minimizing the various

costs incurred in generating the various revenue streams and, consequently, better at

maximizing profits” (p. 1451).

5. Empirical results

The discussion of the empirical results on the efficiency of banks in Greece is structured

in three parts. First, we discuss the efficiency of the full sample of banks obtained

through an input-oriented approach with VRS and the various inputs/outputs

combination discussed above9. Then we focus on the specific issue of the relative

efficiency of IGBs versus PDBs. Finally, we investigate the determinants of efficiency

using Tobit regression10.

5.1. Efficiency estimates - full sample

Table 2 presents the results from the four models that correspond to input/outputs

selected on the basis of the intermediation approach. Table 3 reports the results of

Model 5 that corresponds to the profit oriented approach.

Pastor and Serrano (2005) have used loan loss provisions in a stochastic frontier context as have the few recent studies in a DEA context mentioned in the text. 9 Efficiency scores were estimated with DEAP 2.1 discussed in Coelli (1996). 10 Tobit analysis was performed with E-views 5.1.

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[Insert Tables 2 and 3 Around Here]

The average TE obtained by Model 1 ranges between 0.882 (2004) and 0.977 (2000),

with an overall mean11 over the entire period equal to 0.950, while the corresponding

figures for SE are 0.938 (2003), 0.991 (2001) and 0.966 (overall mean) respectively.

Hence, between 2000 and 2004 banks could improve technical efficiency by 5% and

scale efficiency by 3.4% on average. These figures increase only slightly when we

consider off-balance sheet items as an additional output and equal 0.952 (TE) and 0.971

(SE). However, when we consider loan loss provisions the overall mean technical

efficiency increases by almost 1.5%. Thus, controlling for credit risk appears to have

some impact on the efficiency scores. This is supported further by the only marginal

increase by 0.001 in Model 4 where off-balance sheet items and loan loss provisions are

simultaneously considered, indicating that the increase from the base Model (ie. Model

1) is due to loan loss provisions. Our results are similar to the ones obtained in previous

studies in Greece that employ DEA and follow the intermediation approach. For

example, Rezitis (2006) reports pure technical efficiencies between 0.977 and 0.994,

and scale efficiencies between 0.918 and 0.934 depending on the period under

consideration, while Tsionas et al. (2003) also report an overall technical efficiency

equal to 0.984.

Turning to the results obtained from the profit-oriented model (i.e. Model 5) we

observe that TE is between 0.924 (2004) and 0.975 (2003) with an overall mean equal

to 0.950. The corresponding figures for SE are 0.942 (2002), 0.978 (2004) and 0.960

(overall mean). The contrast between these results and the ones obtained from the

11 This overall mean corresponds to the average calculated by pooling the efficiency scores calculated by year, and not to a model estimated with panel data.

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intermediation approach are mixed. We only partially support the results of Drake et al.

(2006) indicating that technical efficiency is generally higher under the intermediation

approach than under the profit approach. In our study, this is not always the case and

depends upon the models that are compared and the year of observation. Most detailed,

we observe that compared to Models 1 and 2 technical efficiency is higher under the

profit-oriented approach during 2003 and 2004 and lower over the period 2000-2002.

Compared to Models 3 and 4 technical efficiency is higher under the profit-oriented

approach only during 2003. However, it should be mentioned that the intermediation

oriented model estimated in Drake et al. (2006) is most closely related to Model 4 of the

present study12.

Looking at the overall mean now, we observe that the profit-oriented approach

indeed provides lower efficiency scores than all the models estimated under the

intermediation approach. Nevertheless, in any case the differences between the two

approaches are much smaller than the ones reported in Drake et al. (2006). Another

interesting point that emerges from the contrast of the results obtained by the two

approaches is that the range in the efficiency scores is smaller when the profit-oriented

approach is used. That is, the average efficiency scores for Model 1 range between

0.882 and 0.992, and those of Model 2 range between 0.887 and 0.992. The

corresponding figures for Model 3 are 0.927 and 0.992 and those of Model 4 are 0.930

and 0.992. In contrast, Model 5 the efficiency scores of Model 5 range only between

0.924 and 0.975. This could be in part attributed to the argument of Drake et al. (2006)

that “…the profit approach will capture the full impact of any adverse environmental

factors on revenues as well as costs, while the intermediation approach tends to focus

on the technical efficiency of the financial intermediation approach” (p. 1462). 12 Drake et al. (2006) use personnel expenses as input whereas we use the number of staff members. They also use non-interest income rather than off-balance sheet items as an output for off-balance sheet activities.

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However, in any case the differences among the models are in general quite small and

do not allow us to conclude whether the profit-oriented approach provides more reliable

efficiency scores or not.

5.2. International versus purely domestic banks

We now turn to the efficiency of IGBs as opposed to the efficiency of PDBs. Morck and

Yeung (1991) provide some empirical evidence of the multinational advantage based on

the transfer of intangible assets such as technology and reputation from home country so

subsidiaries. Furthermore, operating abroad gives banks the opportunity to follow their

customers and consequently retain them13 (i.e. defensive expansion theory, see

Williams, 2002). This is obviously the one of type of transfer in the firm, while the

opposite or the transfer from one subsidiary to another is possible as well. Hence, banks

that operate abroad might be able to transfer resources such as technology or employees

with increased skills and experience in terms of risk management, regulatory and

reporting practices, gained from working in more sophisticated and advanced

environments (e.g. UK, USA). In that case, the efficiency of IGBs will be higher than

the one of PDBs. On the other hand, IGBs will have to transfer efforts and resources to

the subsidiaries that would otherwise be available to compete in the domestic market,

and this might have a negative effect on their efficiency relative to PDBs.

Six of the banks in the sample (i.e. Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias,

Egnatia Bank, Emporiki Bank of Greece, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank) had

subsidiaries abroad over the entire period of our analysis. Most of these banks as well as

Agricultural Bank of Greece had also branches abroad, while Novabank had branches in

2002 and switched to an international presence through subsidiaries in 2003 and 2004.

13 It is possible that otherwise these customers would switch to another bank that provides services both abroad as well as in the home market.

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We therefore adopt two definitions for IGBs. First, we consider as IGBs only those

banks that are operating abroad through subsidiaries (SIGBs). Then, we consider as

IGBs those banks that have an international presence either through subsidiaries or

branches (SBIGBs). Table 4 reports the average efficiency scores for the two types of

banks estimated by Models 414 and 5, while distinguishing between PDBs and SIGBs

(Panel A) and PDBs and SBIGBs (Panel B).

[Insert Table 4 Around Here]

The contrast of the overall mean efficiency scores obtained from the pooled sample

indicates that IGBs are more efficient than PDBs in all cases. The largest difference is

observed in the case of TE while comparing SIGBs and PDBs under the profit-oriented

approach (0.045). That is, SIGBs can improve technical efficiency by 2.3% whereas

PDBs can improve it by 6.8%. In contrast, the smallest difference is obtained in the case

of SE while comparing SBIGBs and PDBs under the intermediation approach and

equals 0.005.

The comparison of the efficiency scores of PDBs and SIGBs by year indicates

that under the intermediation approach PDBs have higher SE only in 2000. This finding

holds under the profit-oriented approach as well. However, under the latter approach

PDBs appear to have a higher TE in 2003 as well. Inclusion of the banks that operate

through branches in the group SIGBs does not alter the results, the only difference being

that PDBs are now slightly more efficient, in terms of scale efficiency estimated by

Model 4, in 2002 as well.

14From this point and for the rest of our analysis we select Model 4 as representative of the intermediation approach, assuming that according to numerous recent studies it represents a more appropriate combination of inputs and outputs that considers off-balance sheet items and credit risk.

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To examine whether the differences between the groups of interest are

statistically significant, we perform a Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) non-parametric test. Due to

the small number of observations from each group by year, the test is performed on the

scores of the pooled sample of the 78 observations. The results of the K-W test indicate

that under the intermediation approach IGBs, both SIGBs and SBIGBs, are more

efficient than PDBs, in terms of TE that is statistically significant at the 10% and 5%

level respectively15. Hence, our results appear to be in line with the ones of Isik and

Hassan (2002) in the Turkish banking sector. There are several possible explanations for

these findings. First, these banks may transfer resources such as technology or

employees with increased skills gained abroad to the home market, hence increasing

their technical efficiency. They can also retain their customers by following them

abroad or experience gains due to increased reputation and diversification that reduces

their risk. As for the insignificant differences in the case of scale efficiency, Isik and

Hassan (2002) mention that exploitation of scale economics cannot be the motivation

for these large banks’ foreign expansion as multinational banks would have exhausted

their scale economies when they were small, pure domestic banks.

5.3. Stage 2 – Tobit analysis

In order to investigate the determinants of efficiency we construct an econometric

model with technical and scale efficiency as dependent variables. As in previous

studies, due to the limited nature of our efficiency measure (i.e. ranges between 0 and 1)

we use Tobit analysis. As Saxonhouse (1976) points out, heteroscedacity can emerge

when estimated parameters are used as dependent variables in the second stage analysis.

15 In the first case, the chi-square equals 3.612 whereas in the later case it equals 5.092. Differences in SE were not significant for none of the two models, as they were not significant in the case of TE obtained from Model 5. The chi-square and p-values are not reported here but are available from the author upon request.

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Hence, following Hauner (2005), QML (Huber/White) standard errors and covariates

are calculated.

We examine the effect of two groups of factors on efficiency. First, we analyze

the influence of various bank financial characteristics. We follow previous studies and

examine the following variables: equity to assets (EQAS), return on average assets

(ROAA), loan to assets (LOANS), and market power (POWER) as measured by the

relative size of bank (i.e. market share in terms of assets).

Second, we examine the influence of bank’s strategies in terms of investments in

technology (i.e. ATMs and branches) and internationalization of operations. We include

the number of ATMs (ATMs), the number of branches (BRANCH), and two dummy

variables indicating whether banks are offering their services abroad through

subsidiaries (SUB_ABR, that takes the value of 1 if yes and 0 otherwise) or branches

(BR_ABR, that takes the value of 1 if yes and 0 otherwise).

Considering the small number of observations in our sample, we estimate two

specifications of the Tobit model with each one of the two sets of variables examined

sequentially. We follow this approach in order not to overload the regressions. The

findings are reported in Table 5. Panel A presents the results of the regressions with the

bank financial characteristics, while Panel B presents the ones with the variables that

proxy for the strategic decisions of the banks.

[Insert Table 5 Around Here]

EQAS is statistically significant and positively related to efficiency in all our

specifications. Hence, well-capitalized banks are also more efficient, both in terms of

technical and scale efficiency. These results are in line with Isik and Hassan (2003a) in

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Turkey, Casu and Giradone (2004) in Italy, Rao (2005) in United Arab Emirates and

Kwan and Eisenbeis (1997) in the US among others, all reporting a positive relation

between capitalization and various measures of efficiency. One potential explanation for

these findings is that since EQAS reflects the degree to which shareholders have their

own capital at risk in their institution it also reflects their incentives to monitor

management and assure that the bank operates efficiently (Eisenbeis et al., 1999).

Hence, as Isik and Hassan (2003a) mention these results are in favour of the conjectures

of moral hazard theory.

ROAA is positively related to the efficiency measures in all cases however, it is

statistically significant only in the case of the profit-oriented approach (i.e. Model 5).

Even in that case, it has only a marginal impact (i.e. 10% level) on SE. Although

Christopoulos et al. (2002) report a positive and significant relationship between

profitability and efficiency in the Greek banking sector between 1993-1998, the results

from studies in other countries are mixed. For instance, Ataullah and Le (2006) report

both negative and positive statistically significant impacts of return on assets on

efficiency measures in India depending on the specification of the model. Casu and

Molyneux (2003) examine a sample of banks from the principal EU banking sectors16

and find a positive relationship between profitability efficiency, which is however

statistically significant in only two of the five years of the analysis. Isik and Hassan

(2002a) report a positive and significant correlation between both return on equity and

return on assets and efficiency in Turkey. However, Casu and Girardone (2004) report a

negative and statistically significant relationship in Italy.

LOANS carries a positive sign that is statistically significant in all cases and is

consistent with Isik and Hassan (2003a). Casu and Giradone (2004) also report a

16 The principal EU banking sectors are: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK.

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positive relationship although not statistically significant. Isik and Hassan (2003a) argue

that the positive relationship between loan activity and efficiency can be attributed to

the ability of relatively efficient banks to manage operations more productively, that

enables them to have lower production costs and consequently to offer more reasonable

loan terms allowing them to gain larger share in the loan market segment. In contrast to

the above studies, Havrylchyk (2006) finds a negative relationship between the loans to

assets ratio and efficiency, which however becomes positive once the off-balance sheet

items are omitted from outputs.

POWER is also statistically significant and positively related to TE and SE in

both models (i.e. 4 and 5). Since this variable reflects the relative size of the bank and

its market power, our findings seem to support the arguments in favour of size as well

as market share. While our results contradict the ones of Christopoulos et al. (2002) that

report a negative relationship between size and efficiency, they are in line with the

studies of Halkos and Salamouris (2004) and Apergis (2006) in Greece and Berger et al.

(1993) and Miller and Noulas (1996) in the US that report a positive relationship

between size and efficiency. When we interpret our variable as an indicator of market

power rather than size, we tend to support the efficient structure hypothesis. As Isik and

Hassan (2003a) explain due to their low costs of production, relatively efficient firms

might have competed more aggressively, made higher profits and ultimately gained

larger market share.

Turning to the variables related to the strategic choices of the banks, the results

indicate that only BRANCH is significant in all cases (although significant only at the

10% level in the case of TE estimated with model 4). On the other hand, ATM does not

have an impact on efficiency in any of our specifications. One potential explanation is

that the Greek banking system relies heavily on branches as a distribution network with

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the number of branches increasing from year to year contrary to other EU countries,

where a declining trend takes place. As mentioned in the summary of the Annual Report

of the Bank of Greece (2005) the continued increase in the number of bank branches in

Greece is associated with the fast growth of retail banking and Greek customer’s

continued preference for transaction through branches. While the number of ATMs also

increases (e.g. 5,468 in 2003; 5,787 in 2004) such channels are supplementary to

branches, which retain their key role as points of sale (Annual Report of Bank of

Greece, 2004). Attracting new customers and maintaining the existing ones is a main

strategic choice for banks, which as mentioned in the 2004 annual report of the Bank of

Greece, can be achieved more effectively through personal contact at branches.

Furthermore, an extensive branch network also supports the expansion of Greek banks

via cross-selling such as bankassurance products (Summary of Annual Report of Bank

of Greece, 2005). These characteristics of the Greek banking sector obviously explain

why the number of branches has a positive impact on the efficiency of banks rather than

alternative distribution networks such as ATMs.

Finally, with respect to the variables that are related to the international presence

of banks, the results are mixed. Operating abroad through branches appears to be

negatively related to the efficiency of banks, which is however significant only in the

case of TE estimated with Model 5. In contrast, operating abroad through subsidiaries

appears to have a positive impact on both technical and scale efficiency although this is

statistically significant only for Model 4.

6. Conclusions

In the present study we have estimated the technical and scale efficiency of Greek banks

over the period 2000-2004. We used in-put oriented data envelopment analysis with

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variable returns to scales and estimated five models to examine several issues not

considered in the study of the Greek banking sector in the past.

More detailed, we estimated the efficiency of the banks in our sample with and

without off-balance sheet items and loan loss provisions to account for different levels

of off-balance sheet activities and credit risk. In all cases, the models were estimated

following the traditional intermediation approach and the recently proposed (in the

context of DEA) profit-oriented approach. We also compared the efficiency of banks

that have an international presence with the ones that offer their services only in the

domestic market, an issue that has received relatively small attention in the bank

efficiency literature. Finally, we used Tobit analysis to regress the efficiency scores

obtained from the first stage over several variables reflecting bank financial

characteristics and strategic decisions.

The results indicate that the inclusion of off-balance sheet items in the outputs

does not have an impact on the efficiency scores, while the inclusion of loan loss

provisions in the inputs increases the efficiency scores. The contrast of the scores

obtained from the models estimated through the intermediation approach with the ones

obtained from the profit-oriented approach, by year, provided mixed results. However,

we found that in terms of the overall mean, the profit-oriented model provided lower

efficiency scores than all the models estimated under the intermediation approach.

Nevertheless, the differences between the two approaches were much smaller than the

ones reported in Drake et al. (2006). Banks with international operations appeared to be

more efficient than the ones operating only at the national level, consistent with Isik and

Hassan (2002). We obtained similar results whether we defined as international, banks

that offer their services abroad either through subsidiaries or both subsidiaries and

branches. However, the differences were statistically significant only in the case of

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technical efficiency estimated under the intermediation approach. We finally regressed

the scores obtained from the profit-oriented model and the full intermediation model

over banks’ financial characteristics and variables reflecting strategic decisions.

Capitalization, loan activity and market share in terms of total assets were statistically

significant and positively related to the efficiency measures in all cases. Profitability

was positively related to the efficiency measures in all cases however, was statistically

significant only in the case of the profit-oriented approach. Turning to the variables

related to the strategic choices of the banks, the results indicated that the number of

branches was significant in all cases, while the number of ATMs did not had an impact

in any of our specifications. Finally, with respect to the dummy variables indicating

whether the banks were operating abroad through branches or subsidiaries the results

were mixed.

Future research could extend the present study towards numerous directions.

First, commercial banks could be compared with cooperative banks, as the later ones

have not received any attention in past studies in Greece. Second, domestic banks could

be compared with foreign banks, which have received only limited attention and not in

the context of efficiency. Finally, it would be worthwhile to consider a longer time

period and examine the impact of environmental factors such as GDP, inflation and

stock market capitalization on the efficiency of the Greek banking sector.

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Table 1 - Combination of inputs/outputs

Intermediation approach Profit oriented approach Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Inputs Fixed assets Fixed assets Fixed assets Fixed assets Employee expenses

Customer deposits & short term funding

Customer deposits & short term funding

Customer deposits & short term funding

Customer deposits & short term funding

Other Non interest expenses

Number of employees Number of employees Number of employees Number of employees Loan loss provisions Loan loss provisions Loan loss provisions Outputs Loans Loans Loans Loans Net interest income Other earning assets Other earning assets Other earning assets Other earning assets Net commission income Off-balance items Off-balance items Other operating income

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Table 2 – DEA results with intermediation approach (Models 1-4)

TE (VRS)

SE TE (VRS)

SE

Year Mean Mean Mean Mean Model 1 Model 2 2004 (N =18) 0.882 0.974 0.887 0.977 2003 (N =17) 0.938 0.938 0.938 0.938 2002 (N = 17) 0.980 0.981 0.980 0.981 2001 (N = 14) 0.992 0.991 0.992 0.991 2000 (N = 12) 0.977 0.978 0.979 0.979 Overall (2001-2004; N = 78) 0.950 0.966 0.952 0.971 Model 3 Model 4 2004 (N =18) 0.927 0.992 0.930 0.994 2003 (N =17) 0.954 0.954 0.954 0.955 2002 (N = 17) 0.980 0.981 0.908 0.981 2001 (N = 14) 0.992 0.991 0.992 0.991 2000 (N = 12) 0.977 0.978 0.979 0.979 Overall (2001-2004; N = 78) 0.964 0.975 0.965 0.979 Notes: TE: technical efficiency, SE: scale efficiency, VRS: Variable returns on scale; Model 1 is estimated with fixed assets, customer deposits & short term funding, and number of employees as inputs, and loans and other earning assets as outputs; Model 2 is estimated as Model 1 but with off-balance sheet items as an additional output; Model 3 is estimated as Model 1 but with loan loss provisions as an additional input; Model 4 is estimated as Model 1 but with off-balance sheet items as an additional output and loan loss provisions as an additional input.

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Table 3 – DEA results with profit oriented approach (Model 5)

TE (VRS) SE Mean Mean 2004 (N =18) 0.924 0.978 2003 (N =17) 0.975 0.976 2002 (N = 17) 0.944 0.942 2001 (N = 14) 0.946 0.945 2000 (N = 12) 0.968 0.966 Overall (2001-2004; N = 78) 0.950 0.960 Notes: TE: technical efficiency, SE: scale efficiency, CRS: constant return on scale, VRS: Variable returns on scale; Model 5 is estimated with employee expenses, other non interest expenses and loan loss provisions as inputs, and net interest income, net commission income and other operating income as outputs

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Table 4 –Purely domestic versus international Greek banks

N PDBs IGBs Model 4 Model 5 Model 4 Model 5 TE (VRS) SE TE

(VRS) SE TE (VRS) SE TE (VRS) SE

Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Panel A: operations abroad through subsidiaries (SIGBs)

2004 11 PDBs / 7 SIGBs 0.924 0.992 0.914 0.973 0.941 0.998 0.941 0.985 2003 10 PDBs / 7 SIGBs 0.929 0.967 0.978 0.967 0.991 0.979 0.971 0.999 2002 11 PDBs / 6 SIGBs 0.970 0.954 0.917 0.911 0.999 0.966 0.993 0.974 2001 8 PDBs / 6 SIGBs 0.987 0.993 0.916 0.900 1.000 1.000 0.987 0.971 2000 6 PDBs / 6 SIGBs 0.959 0.981 0.936 0.989 0.999 0.968 1.000 0.969 Overall (2001-2004)

46 PDBs / 32 SIGBs 0.951 0.976 0.932 0.946 0.985 0.982 0.977 0.980

Panel B: Operations abroad through subsidiaries and branches (SBIGBs)

2004 10 PDBs / 8 SBIGBs 0.916 0.991 0.905 0.970 0.948 0.998 0.949 0.987 2003 9 PDBs / 8 SBIGBs 0.937 0.964 0.976 0.963 0.974 0.981 0.975 0.999 2002 9 PDBs / 8 SBIGBs 0.964 0.959 0.938 0.908 0.999 0.957 0.951 0.962 2001 7 PDBs / 7 SBIGBs 0.985 0.992 0.903 0.886 1.000 1.000 0.988 0.975 2000 5 PDBs / 7 SBIGBs 0.950 0.977 0.923 0.986 0.999 0.972 1.000 0.973 Overall (2001-2004)

40 PDBs / 38 SBIGBs 0.948 0.976 0.930 0.942 0.983 0.981 0.971 0.979

Notes: PDBs: Purely domestic banks, IGBs: International Greek Banks; TE: technical efficiency, SE: scale efficiency, VRS: Variable returns on scale; Model 4 is estimated with fixed assets, customer deposits & short term funding, number of employees and loan loss provisions as inputs, and loans, other earning assets and off-balance sheet items as outputs; Model 5 is estimated with employee expenses, other non interest expenses and loan loss provisions as inputs, and net interest income, net commission income and other operating income as outputs

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Table 5 – Tobit censored regression results

Model 4 Model 5 TE SE TE SE Coef. p-value Coef. p-value Coef. p-value Coef. p-value

Panel A: TE & SE regressed over bank financial characteristics EQAS 0.065537 0.0000 0.030122 0.0000 0.049830 0.0000 0.019114 0.0007ROAA 0.005145 0.8566 0.010771 0.7022 0.120047 0.0011 0.071777 0.0567LOANS 0.006359 0.0031 0.011457 0.0000 0.009719 0.0000 0.013829 0.0000POWER 0.038415 0.0000 0.021705 0.0000 0.025861 0.0000 0.015411 0.0000 Panel B: TE & SE regressed over strategic decisions related variables ATM 0.001783 0.2603 0.000312 0.7624 0.001306 0.3930 -0.000336 0.7571BRANCH 0.005875 0.0805 0.004469 0.0017 0.010266 0.0083 0.006977 0.0051BR_ABR -0.641537 0.4266 -0.363895 0.5715 -1.715891 0.0309 -0.489866 0.4573SUB_ABR 0.768489 0.0285 0.725462 0.0007 0.711865 0.1073 0.330059 0.1962Notes: N=78 observations; TE: technical efficiency, SE: scale efficiency; Model 4 is estimated with fixed assets, customer deposits & short term funding, number of employees and loan loss provisions as inputs, and loans, other earning assets and off-balance sheet items as outputs, Model 5 is estimated with employee expenses, other non interest expenses and loan loss provisions as inputs, and net interest income, net commission income and other operating income as outputs; EQAS: equity to assets, ROAA: return on average assets, LOANS: loans to assets, POWER: market share in terms of total assets, ATM: the number of bank’s ATMs, BRANCH: the number of bank’s branches, BR_ABR: dummy variable that equals 1 if the bank has branches abroad and 0 otherwise, SUB_ABR: dummy variable that equals 1 if the bank has subsidiaries abroad and 0 otherwise; QML (Huber/White) standard errors and covariates have been calculated to control for heteroscedacity

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University of Bath School of Management Working Paper Series

Past Papers

School of Management Claverton Down

Bath BA2 7AY

United Kingdom Tel: +44 1225 826742 Fax: +44 1225 826473

http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/research/papers.htm

2005

2005.01 Bruce A. Rayton Specific Human Capital as an Additional Reason

for Profit Sharing

2005.02

Catherine Pardo, Stephan C. Henneberg, Stefanos

Mouzas and Peter Naudè

Unpicking the Meaning of Value in Key Account Management

2005.03 Andrew Pettigrew and Stephan C. Henneberg

(Editors)

Funding Gap or Leadership Gap – A Panel Discussion on Entrepreneurship and Innovation

2005.04 Robert Heath & Agnes Nairn

Measuring Affective Advertising: Implications of Low Attention Processing on Recall

2005.05 Juani Swart Identifying the sub-components of intellectual capital: a literature review and development of measures

2005.06 Juani Swart, John Purcell and Nick Kinnie

Knowledge work and new organisational forms: the HRM challenge

2005.07 Niki Panteli, Ioanna Tsiourva and Soy Modelly

Intra-organizational Connectivity and Interactivity with Intranets: The case of a Pharmaceutical Company

2005.08 Stefanos Mouzas, Stephan Henneberg and Peter

Naudé

Amalgamating strategic possibilities

2005.09 Abed Al-Nasser Abdallah Cross-Listing, Investor Protection, and Disclosure: Does It Make a Difference: The Case of Cross-Listed

Versus Non-Cross-Listed firms

2005.10 Richard Fairchild and Sasanee Lovisuth

Strategic Financing Decisions in a Spatial Model of Product Market Competition.

2005.11 Richard Fairchild Persuasive advertising and welfare in a Hotelling market.

2005.12 Stephan C. Henneberg, Catherine Pardo, Stefanos Mouzas and Peter Naudé

Dyadic ‘Key Relationship Programmes’: Value dimensions and strategies.

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2005.13 Felicia Fai and Jing-Lin Duanmu

Knowledge transfers, organizational governance and knowledge utilization: the case of electrical supplier

firms in Wuxi, PRC

2005.14 Yvonne Ward and Professor Andrew Graves

Through-life Management: The Provision of Integrated Customer Solutions By Aerospace Manufacturers

2005.15 Mark Ginnever, Andy McKechnie & Niki Panteli

A Model for Sustaining Relationships in IT Outsourcing with Small IT Vendors

2005.16 John Purcell Business strategies and human resource management: uneasy bedfellows or strategic partners?

2005.17 Richard Fairchild Managerial Overconfidence, Moral Hazard, and Financing and Investment Decisions

2005.18 Wing Yee Lee, Paul Goodwin, Robert Fildes,

Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, & Michael

Lawrence

Providing support for the use of analogies in demand forecasting tasks

2005.19 Richard Fairchild and Sasanee Lovisuth

Product Differentiation, Myopia, and Collusion over Strategic Financing Decisions

2005.20 Steven Brammer, Andrew Millington & Bruce

Rayton

The Contribution of Corporate Social Responsibility to Organisational Commitment

2005.21 Richard Fairchild and Ganggang Zhang

Repurchase and Dividend Catering, Managerial Myopia, and Long-run Value-destruction