صرفه به مقیاس، بازده و همگرایی بهره وری در برگزاری شرکت های بانکی

Are the less productive banks catching up to the more productive ones and, if so, how quickly and by what means? The objective of this study is to answer these questions by looking for convergence in productivity among bank holding companies (BHCs) in the US Past research has identified two major factors governing productivity in the banking sector – scale economies and X-efficiency. If the gains from scale economies decline with firm size and if the only difference between BHCs lies in their initial size, then the initially smaller BHCs should eventually catch up to the initially larger ones because the former tend to grow more quickly. However, the findings from this study do not support this hypothesis of “absolute convergence”. Indeed, the findings show strong evidence for “conditional convergence”, which means that the steady-state productivity to which a BHC is converging is conditional on the BHCs own level of X-efficiency. Conditional convergence implies that initial differences in X-efficiency among BHCs can, between them, create permanent differences in steady-state productivity.

Comparisons of productivity performance across financial institutions are central to answering many of the questions on factors leading to a growth in the productivity of banks. Are less productive banks catching up to more productive ones and, if so, how quickly and by what means? Groups as disparate as financial economists and business leaders have expressed profound interest in the issue of whether banks that are currently the best performers can maintain their roles as productivity leaders in the future. With special reference to the US banking industry, this study examines the convergence of productivity among bank holding companies (BHCs).

A comparison of productivity performance across financial institutions is central to answering many of the questions concerning factors leading to the growth in the productivity of banks: are less productive banks catching up to more productive ones and, if so, how quickly and by what means? The objective of this study was to answer these questions by looking for the existence of convergence in productivity among BHCs. Past research identified two major factors governing productivity in the banking sector – scale economies and X-efficiency. If the gains from scale economies decline with firm size and the only difference between BHCs lies in their initial size (i.e., they have the same level of X-efficiency), then the initially smaller and less productive BHCs should eventually catch up to the initially larger and more productive ones because the former tend to grow faster. However, the findings from this study do not support this hypothesis. Indeed, the findings show strong evidence for conditional convergence among BHCs, which means that each BHC possesses its own steady-state productivity to which it is converging. In other words, differences in X-efficiency among BHCs can create permanent differences in productivity among them.