IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intfin/v22y2012i4p879-896.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ownership, diversification and cost advantages: Evidence from the Italian leasing industry

Author

Listed:
  • Degl’Innocenti, Marta
  • Girardone, Claudia

Abstract

Using Greene's (2005) random parameter cost frontier model and a unique hand-collected dataset, this paper provides novel evidence on the cost advantages of Italian leasing companies over 2002–2008, focusing on ownership structures and diversification strategies. Results suggest that cost efficiency and economies of scale have decreased significantly over the period analyzed. Bank-related, independent and domestic leasing companies are more able to control costs than their captive and foreign counterparts. Diversification strategies can be crucial in determining the cost effectiveness of leasing firms. Nonetheless, smaller, independent and less diversified leasing firms appear to benefit from higher economies of scale and greater technological advancements.

Suggested Citation

  • Degl’Innocenti, Marta & Girardone, Claudia, 2012. "Ownership, diversification and cost advantages: Evidence from the Italian leasing industry," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 879-896.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:22:y:2012:i:4:p:879-896
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2012.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042443112000467
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intfin.2012.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2007. "Is there a diversification discount in financial conglomerates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 331-367, August.
    2. Fauver, Larry & Houston, Joel F. & Naranjo, Andy, 2004. "Cross-country evidence on the value of corporate industrial and international diversification," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 729-752, November.
    3. Altunbas, Yener & Goddard, John & Molyneux, Phil, 1999. "Technical change in banking," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 215-221, August.
    4. Lewellen, Wilbur G, 1971. "A Pure Financial Rationale for the Conglomerate Merger," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 26(2), pages 521-537, May.
    5. Stiroh, Kevin J, 2004. "Diversification in Banking: Is Noninterest Income the Answer?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(5), pages 853-882, October.
    6. Chen, Joyce T. & Chen, Chong-Tong & Rezvanian, Rasoul, 1998. "Holding company affiliation versus branching by independent banks: A cost analysis for interstate banking," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 87-101.
    7. Altunbas, Y. & Gardener, E. P. M. & Molyneux, P. & Moore, B., 2001. "Efficiency in European banking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1931-1955, December.
    8. Goddard, John & McKillop, Donal & Wilson, John O.S., 2008. "The diversification and financial performance of US credit unions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1836-1849, September.
    9. Berger, Allen N. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Zhou, Mingming, 2010. "The effects of focus versus diversification on bank performance: Evidence from Chinese banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1417-1435, July.
    10. Berger, Allen N. & Udell, Gregory F., 2006. "A more complete conceptual framework for SME finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2945-2966, November.
    11. Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu, 2000. "Is Group Affiliation Profitable in Emerging Markets? An Analysis of Diversified Indian Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 867-891, April.
    12. 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.
    13. Claessens, Stijn & Demirguc-Kunt, Asl[iota] & Huizinga, Harry, 2001. "How does foreign entry affect domestic banking markets?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 891-911, May.
    14. Hadlock, Charles J & Ryngaert, Michael & Thomas, Shawn, 2001. "Corporate Structure and Equity Offerings: Are There Benefits to Diversification?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(4), pages 613-635, October.
    15. Viral V. Acharya & Iftekhar Hasan & Anthony Saunders, 2006. "Should Banks Be Diversified? Evidence from Individual Bank Loan Portfolios," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 1355-1412, May.
    16. Wilson, John O.S. & Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia & Molyneux, Philip, 2010. "Emerging themes in banking: Recent literature and directions for future research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 153-169.
    17. Robert DeYoung & Douglas Evanoff & Philip Molyneux, 2009. "Mergers and Acquisitions of Financial Institutions: A Review of the Post-2000 Literature," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 87-110, December.
    18. Steven Drucker & Manju Puri, 2009. "On Loan Sales, Loan Contracting, and Lending Relationships," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2635-2672, July.
    19. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    20. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387, September.
    21. Jaap W. B. Bos & James W. Kolari, 2005. "Large Bank Efficiency in Europe and the United States: Are There Economic Motivations for Geographic Expansion in Financial Services?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(4), pages 1555-1592, July.
    22. Franco Fiordelisi & Philip Molyneux, 2004. "Efficiency in the factoring industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 947-959.
    23. Claudia Girardone & Philip Molyneux & Edward Gardener, 2004. "Analysing the determinants of bank efficiency: the case of Italian banks," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 215-227.
    24. repec:zbw:bofitp:2010_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Pitt, Mark M. & Lee, Lung-Fei, 1981. "The measurement and sources of technical inefficiency in the Indonesian weaving industry," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 43-64, August.
    26. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    27. George E. Battese & Greg S. Corra, 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 169-179, December.
    28. Tadesse, Solomon, 2006. "Consolidation, scale economies and technological change in Japanese banking," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 425-445, December.
    29. Hunter, William C & Timme, Stephen G, 1986. "Technical Change, Organizational Form, and the Structure of Bank Production," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 18(2), pages 152-166, May.
    30. Chambers Robert G. & Fare Rolf, 1994. "Hicks' Neutrality and Trade Biased Growth: A Taxonomy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 554-567, December.
    31. Battese, George E. & Corra, Greg S., 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 1-11, December.
    32. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    33. Greene, William, 2005. "Reconsidering heterogeneity in panel data estimators of the stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 269-303, June.
    34. Cavallo, Laura & Rossi, Stefania P. S., 2001. "Scale and scope economies in the European banking systems," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4-5), pages 515-531, December.
    35. Coccorese, Paolo, 2005. "Competition in markets with dominant firms: A note on the evidence from the Italian banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1083-1093, May.
    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. Zhi-Hua Hu & Qing Li & Xian-Juan Chen & Yan-Feng Wang, 2014. "Sustainable Rent-Based Closed-Loop Supply Chain for Fashion Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-26, October.
    2. Degl’Innocenti, Marta & Girardone, Claudia & Torluccio, Giuseppe, 2014. "Diversification, multimarket contacts and profits in the leasing industry," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 231-252.

    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. Curi, Claudia & Lozano-Vivas, Ana & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2015. "Foreign bank diversification and efficiency prior to and during the financial crisis: Does one business model fit all?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(S1), pages 22-35.
    2. Pavlos Almanidis & Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2019. "A dynamic stochastic frontier model with threshold effects: U.S. bank size and efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 69-84, December.
    3. Haykel Zouaoui & Faten Zoghlami, 2023. "What do we know about the impact of income diversification on bank performance? A systematic literature review," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 286-309, September.
    4. Manlagnit, Maria Chelo V., 2015. "Basel regulations and banks’ efficiency: The case of the Philippines," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 72-85.
    5. Martini, Gianmaria & Scotti, Davide & Viola, Domenico & Vittadini, Giorgio, 2020. "Persistent and temporary inefficiency in airport cost function: An application to Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 999-1019.
    6. Williams, Jonathan & Nguyen, Nghia, 2005. "Financial liberalisation, crisis, and restructuring: A comparative study of bank performance and bank governance in South East Asia," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 2119-2154, August.
    7. Roberto Colombi & Gianmaria Martini & Giorgio Vittadini, 2017. "Determinants of transient and persistent hospital efficiency: The case of Italy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S2), pages 5-22, September.
    8. Bos, Jaap W. B. & Heid, Frank & Koetter, Michael & Kolari, James W. & Kool, Clemens J. M., 2005. "Inefficient or just different? Effects of heterogeneity on bank efficiency scores," Discussion Paper Series 2: Banking and Financial Studies 2005,15, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    9. Sickles, Robin C. & Hao, Jiaqi & Shang, Chenjun, 2015. "Panel Data and Productivity Measurement," Working Papers 15-018, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    10. Bernini, Cristina & Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2017. "Public subsidies, TFP and efficiency: A tale of complex relationships," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 751-767.
    11. Marko Košak & Peter Zajc & Jelena Zorić, 2009. "Bank efficiency differences in the new EU member states," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 9(2), pages 67-90, December.
    12. Wilson, John O.S. & Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia & Molyneux, Philip, 2010. "Emerging themes in banking: Recent literature and directions for future research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 153-169.
    13. Antonio Lopes & Luca Giordano, 2006. "Risk Preference and Investments Quality as Determinants of Efficiency in the Italian Banking System," Quaderni DSEMS 12-2006, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    14. Abiodun Adegboye & Olawale Daniel Akinyele, 2022. "Assessing the determinants of government spending efficiency in Africa," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    15. Doan, Anh-Tuan & Lin, Kun-Li & Doong, Shuh-Chyi, 2018. "What drives bank efficiency? The interaction of bank income diversification and ownership," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 203-219.
    16. Timothy King & Jonathan Williams, 2013. "Bank Efficiency and Executive Compensation," Working Papers 13009, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    17. repec:use:tkiwps:1818 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. I. Fraser & W. Horrace, 2003. "Technical Efficiency of Australian Wool Production: Point and Confidence Interval Estimates," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 169-190, September.
    19. Bos, J.W.B. & Schmiedel, H., 2007. "Is there a single frontier in a single European banking market?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 2081-2102, July.
    20. Westman, Hanna, 2011. "The impact of management and board ownership on profitability in banks with different strategies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3300-3318.
    21. Mike Tsionas & Marwan Izzeldin & Arne Henningsen & Evaggelos Paravalos, 2022. "Addressing endogeneity when estimating stochastic ray production frontiers: a Bayesian approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1345-1363, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency; Leasing industry; Random parameter frontier model; Diversification strategies; Ownership structures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:intfin:v:22:y:2012:i:4:p:879-896. 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/intfin .

    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.