IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/glofin/v21y2010i2p201-210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Convergence of total factor productivity among banks: Hong Kong's experience

Author

Listed:
  • Fung, Michael K.
  • Cheng, Arnold C.S.

Abstract

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 total factor productivity (TFP) among banks in Hong Kong. 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 the only difference between banks lies in their initial size, the initially smaller banks should eventually catch up to the initially larger ones because the former tends to grow more rapidly. 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 TFP to which a bank is converging is conditional on the bank's own level of X-efficiency. Conditional convergence implies that initial differences in X-efficiency among banks can, between them, create permanent differences in TFP.

Suggested Citation

  • Fung, Michael K. & Cheng, Arnold C.S., 2010. "Convergence of total factor productivity among banks: Hong Kong's experience," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 201-210.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:glofin:v:21:y:2010:i:2:p:201-210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044-0283(10)00024-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mester, Loretta J., 1993. "Efficiency in the savings and loan industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 267-286, April.
    2. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X, 1996. "The Classical Approach to Convergence Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1019-1036, July.
    3. Miller, Stephen M. & Noulas, Athanasios G., 1996. "The technical efficiency of large bank production," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 495-509, April.
    4. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    5. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1991. "The dominance of inefficiencies over scale and product mix economies in banking," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 117-148, August.
    6. Berger, Allen N. & Mester, Loretta J., 1997. "Inside the black box: What explains differences in the efficiencies of financial institutions?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 895-947, July.
    7. Joseph P. Hughes & Loretta J. Mester, 1998. "Bank Capitalization And Cost: Evidence Of Scale Economies In Risk Management And Signaling," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 314-325, May.
    8. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    9. Rogers, Kevin E., 1998. "Nontraditional activities and the efficiency of US commercial banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 467-482, May.
    10. Jim Wong & Eric Tak-Chuen Wong & Tom Pak-Wing Fong & Ka-Fai Choi, 2008. "Competition in Hong Kong’s Banking Sector: A Panzar–Rosse Assessment," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Hans Genberg & Cho-Hoi Hui (ed.), The Banking Sector in Hong Kong, chapter 2, pages 17-31, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Fung, Michael K., 2006. "Scale economies, X-efficiency, and convergence of productivity among bank holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2857-2874, October.
    12. Joseph P. Hughes & William W. Lang & Loretta J. Mester & Choon-Geol Moon, 1996. "Efficient banking under interstate branching," Proceedings, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), pages 1045-1075.
    13. Miller, Stephen M. & Upadhyay, Mukti P., 2000. "The effects of openness, trade orientation, and human capital on total factor productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 399-423, December.
    14. Berger, Allen N. & Hancock, Diana & Humphrey, David B., 1993. "Bank efficiency derived from the profit function," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 317-347, April.
    15. Stiroh, Kevin J., 2000. "How did bank holding companies prosper in the 1990s?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1703-1745, November.
    16. Berger, Allen N. & Hanweck, Gerald A. & Humphrey, David B., 1987. "Competitive viability in banking : Scale, scope, and product mix economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 501-520, December.
    17. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    18. Fried, Harold O. & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Eeckaut, Philippe Vanden, 1993. "Evaluating the performance of US credit unions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 251-265, April.
    19. Joseph P. Hughes & Loretta J. Mester, "undated". "A Quality and Risk-Adjusted Cost Function for Banks: Evidence on the "Too-Big-To-Fail" Doctrine," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 25-92, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    20. David B. Humphrey, 1990. "Why do estimates of bank scale economies differ?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 76(Sep), pages 38-50.
    21. George J. Benston, 1965. "Branch Banking And Economies Of Scale," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 312-331, May.
    22. Hunter, William C & Timme, Stephen G, 1995. "Core Deposits and Physical Capital: A Reexamination of Bank Scale Economies and Efficiency with Quasi-Fixed Inputs," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(1), pages 165-185, February.
    23. Jensen, Michael C & Murphy, Kevin J, 1990. "Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 225-264, April.
    24. Noulas, Athanasios G & Ray, Subhash C & Miller, Stephen M, 1990. "Returns to Scale and Input Substitution for Large U.S. Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 22(1), pages 94-108, February.
    25. Bernard, Andrew B & Jones, Charles I, 1996. "Comparing Apples to Oranges: Productivity Convergence and Measurement across Industries and Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1216-1238, December.
    26. Lang, Gunter & Welzel, Peter, 1996. "Efficiency and technical progress in banking Empirical results for a panel of German cooperative banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 1003-1023, July.
    27. Pi, Lynn & Timme, Stephen G., 1993. "Corporate control and bank efficiency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 515-530, April.
    28. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-run Data Show," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1072-1085, December.
    29. Friedman, Milton, 1992. "Do Old Fallacies Ever Die?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 2129-2132, December.
    30. Berger, Allen N. & Hunter, William C. & Timme, Stephen G., 1993. "The efficiency of financial institutions: A review and preview of research past, present and future," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 221-249, April.
    31. David B. Humphrey, 1991. "Productivity in banking and effects from deregulation," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 77(Mar), pages 16-28.
    32. Bikker, Jacob A. & Haaf, Katharina, 2002. "Competition, concentration and their relationship: An empirical analysis of the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 2191-2214, November.
    33. Gardner, Lisa A. & Grace, Martin F., 1993. "X-Efficiency in the US life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 497-510, April.
    34. Allen N. Berger & David B. Humphrey, 1992. "Megamergers in banking and the use of cost efficiency as an antitrust defense," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 203, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    35. Miller, Stephen M. & Upadhyay, Mukti P., 2002. "Total factor productivity and the convergence hypothesis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 267-286, June.
    36. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:4:p:427-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lina Novickytė & Jolanta Droždz, 2018. "Measuring the Efficiency in the Lithuanian Banking Sector: The DEA Application," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Thota, Nagaraju & Subrahmanyam, A.C.V., 2020. "Bank total factor productivity convergence: Evidence from india," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    3. Roger Frantz, 2017. "Rationality, globalization, and X-efficiency among fi nancial institutions," Chapters, in: Morris Altman (ed.), Handbook of Behavioural Economics and Smart Decision-Making, chapter 15, pages 275-289, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Muhammad Safdar & Ahmad Nawaz, 2020. "Testing The Convergence Hypothesis In Solow Growth Model: A Statistical Evidence From Saarc Economies," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(2), pages 60-73, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fung, Michael K., 2006. "Scale economies, X-efficiency, and convergence of productivity among bank holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2857-2874, October.
    2. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1997. "Efficiency of financial institutions: International survey and directions for future research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 175-212, April.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Demsetz, Rebecca S. & Strahan, Philip E., 1999. "The consolidation of the financial services industry: Causes, consequences, and implications for the future," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 135-194, February.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Mester, Loretta J., 1997. "Inside the black box: What explains differences in the efficiencies of financial institutions?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 895-947, July.
    5. Chu, Sing Fat & Lim, Guan Hua, 1998. "Share performance and profit efficiency of banks in an oligopolistic market: evidence from Singapore," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 155-168, September.
    6. Isik, Ihsan & Hassan, M. Kabir, 2002. "Technical, scale and allocative efficiencies of Turkish banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 719-766, April.
    7. Amel, Dean & Barnes, Colleen & Panetta, Fabio & Salleo, Carmelo, 2004. "Consolidation and efficiency in the financial sector: A review of the international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 2493-2519, October.
    8. Md. Asif Nawaz, 2021. "Impact of Specialization, Ownership Structure, and Size on Cost and Profit Efficiency of US Commercial and Savings Banks," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 11(3), pages 1-4.
    9. Allen N. Berger, 2000. "The integration of the financial services industry: where are the efficiencies?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-36, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Diego Restrepo-Tobón & Subal Kumbhakar & Kai Sun, 2015. "Obelix vs. Asterix: Size of US commercial banks and its regulatory challenge," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 125-168, October.
    11. Fakarudin Kamarudin & Bany Ariffin Amin Nordin & Junaina Muhammad & Mohamad Ali Abdul Hamid, 2014. "Cost, Revenue and Profit Efficiency of Islamic and Conventional Banking Sector: Empirical Evidence from Gulf Cooperative Council Countries," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    12. Stiroh, Kevin J., 2000. "How did bank holding companies prosper in the 1990s?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1703-1745, November.
    13. Daniel Gropper & Steven Caudill & T. Beard, 1999. "Estimating Multiproduct Cost Functions Over Time Using a Mixture of Normals," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 201-218, June.
    14. Allen Berger & David Humphrey, 1994. "Bank Scale Economies, Mergers, Concentration, and Efficiency: The U.S. Experience," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 94-25, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    15. Kyj, Larissa & Isik, Ihsan, 2008. "Bank x-efficiency in Ukraine: An analysis of service characteristics and ownership," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 369-393.
    16. Miller, Stephen M. & Upadhyay, Mukti P., 2002. "Total factor productivity and the convergence hypothesis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 267-286, June.
    17. Ihsan Isik & M. Kabir Hassan, 2003. "Efficiency, Ownership and Market Structure, Corporate Control and Governance in the Turkish Banking Industry," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(9‐10), pages 1363-1421, December.
    18. Sayuri Shirai, 2001. "Searching for New Regulatory Frameworks for the Intermediate Financial Structure in Post-Crisis Asia," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 01-28, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    19. Roman Matoušek & Anita Taci, 2005. "Efficiency in Banking: Empirical Evidence from the Czech Republic," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 225-244, September.
    20. Dairo Estrada & Poldy Osorio, 2004. "Effects of Financial Capital on Colombian Banking Efficiency," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 22(47), pages 162-201, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:glofin:v:21:y:2010:i:2:p:201-210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620162 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.