IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/1543.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Should the Government Be in the Banking Business?: The Role of State-Owned and Development Banks

Author

Listed:
  • Levy Yeyati, Eduardo
  • Micco, Alejandro
  • Panizza, Ugo

Abstract

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the role of state-owned banks and also presents some new results and a robustness analysis. The paper shows that state-owned banks located in developing countries have fiscal costs because they are characterized by lower returns than comparable privately owned banks (on the other hand, there is no evidence that state-owned banks located in industrial countries are less profitable than their private counterparts). We then point out that this evidence cannot be used as an argument against the existence of state-owned banks, as this low profitability might stem from state-owned banks activity on projects characterized by low private sector investment and high social return. While we find no evidence that the presence of state-owned banks promotes economic growth or financial development, we also find that the evidence that state-owned banks lead to lower growth and financial development is not as strong as previously thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Levy Yeyati, Eduardo & Micco, Alejandro & Panizza, Ugo, 2004. "Should the Government Be in the Banking Business?: The Role of State-Owned and Development Banks," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1543, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:1543
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Should-the-Government-Be-in-the-Banking-Business-The-Role-of-State-Owned-and-Development-Banks.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    2. Demirguc, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 1999. "Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Margins and Profitability: Some International Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 379-408, May.
    3. Sapienza, Paola, 2004. "The effects of government ownership on bank lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 357-384, May.
    4. Kane, Edward J, 1977. "Good Intentions and Unintended Evil: The Case against Selective Credit Allocation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 55-69, February.
    5. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    6. Santiago Fernández de Lis & Jorge Martínez Pagés & Jesús Saurina, 2001. "Credit growth, problem loans and credit risk provisioning in Spain," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Marrying the macro- and micro-prudential dimensions of financial stability, volume 1, pages 331-353, Bank for International Settlements.
    7. Bonin, John P. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Wachtel, Paul, 2005. "Privatization matters: Bank efficiency in transition countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 2155-2178, August.
    8. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "Government Ownership of Banks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 265-301, February.
    9. Micco, Alejandro & Panizza, Ugo, 2006. "Bank ownership and lending behavior," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 248-254, November.
    10. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Detragiache, Enrica, 2002. "Does deposit insurance increase banking system stability? An empirical investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 1373-1406, October.
    11. Barth, James R. & Caprio,Gerard & Levine, Ross, 2001. "The regulation and supervision of banks around the world - a new database," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2588, The World Bank.
    12. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    13. Beck, Thorsten & Crivelli, Juan Miguel & Summerhill, William, 2005. "State bank transformation in Brazil - choices and consequences," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 2223-2257, August.
    14. Fama, Eugene F., 1985. "What's different about banks?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 29-39, January.
    15. George J. Stigler, 1967. "Imperfections in the Capital Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 287-287.
    16. Oliver Hart & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "The Proper Scope of Government: Theory and an Application to Prisons," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1127-1161.
    17. de Aghion, Beatriz Armendariz, 1999. "Development banking," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 83-100, February.
    18. Stijn Claessens & Luc Laeven, 2003. "Financial Development, Property Rights, and Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2401-2436, December.
    19. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    20. Clarke, George R G & Cull, Robert, 2002. "Political and Economic Determinants of the Likelihood of Privatizing Argentine Public Banks," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(1), pages 165-197, April.
    21. Robin Burgess & Rohini Pande, 2005. "Do Rural Banks Matter? Evidence from the Indian Social Banking Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 780-795, June.
    22. Micco, Alejandro & Panizza, Ugo, 2006. "Bank ownership and lending behavior," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 248-254, November.
    23. E. Gerald Corrigan, 1982. "Are banks special?," Annual Report, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    24. Xavier Freixas & Jean-Charles Rochet, 1997. "Microeconomics of Banking," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262061937, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Eduardo Levy Yeyati & Alejandro Micco & Ugo Panizza, 2004. "¿Debe el gobierno participar en la actividad bancaria? El papel de la banca propiedad del Estado y de la banca de fomento," Research Department Publications 4380, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. Francisco, Manuela & Mascaro, Yira & Mendoza, Juan Carlos & Yaron, Jacob, 2008. "Measuring the performance and achievement of social objectives of development finance institutions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4506, The World Bank.
    3. Janbaz, Mehdi & Hassan, M. Kabir & Floreani, Josanco & Dreassi, Alberto & Jiménez, Alfredo, 2022. "Political risk in banks: A review and agenda," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Dumitriu, Ramona & Stefanescu, Razvan & Nistor, Costel, 2012. "State - owned banks from Romania," MPRA Paper 52768, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2013.
    5. Doan, Anh-Tuan & Lin, Kun-Li & Doong, Shuh-Chyi, 2020. "State-controlled banks and income smoothing. Do politics matter?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    6. Kaminsky, Graciela L. & Repetto, Andrea, 2001. "Comments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123256, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Megginson, William L., 2005. "The economics of bank privatization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 1931-1980, August.
    8. Micco, Alejandro & Panizza, Ugo & Yanez, Monica, 2007. "Bank ownership and performance. Does politics matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 219-241, January.
    9. Coleman, Nicholas & Feler, Leo, 2015. "Bank ownership, lending, and local economic performance during the 2008–2009 financial crisis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 50-66.
    10. Caprio, Gerard & Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2007. "Governance and bank valuation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 584-617, October.
    11. Boulanouar, Zakaria & Alqahtani, Faisal & Hamdi, Besma, 2021. "Bank ownership, institutional quality and financial stability: evidence from the GCC region," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    13. Denis Davydov, 2018. "Does State Ownership of Banks Matter?," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(2), pages 250-285, August.
    14. Babasyan, Davit & Gu, Yunfan & Melecky, Martin, 2023. "Late banking transitions: Comparing Uzbekistan to earlier reformers," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    15. Fredrik N. G. Andersson & Katarzyna Burzynska & Sonja Opper, 2016. "Lending for growth? A Granger causality analysis of China’s finance–growth nexus," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 897-920, November.
    16. Alexandre Rands Barros, 2005. "The Impact Of State Owned Banks On Interest Rates Spread," Anais do XXXIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 33rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 041, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    17. Andersson, Fredrik N. G. & Burzynska, Katarzyna & Opper, Sonja, 2013. "Lending for Growth? An Analysis of State-Owned Banks in China," Working Papers 2013:19, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    18. Panizza, Ugo & Micco, Alejandro & Yañez, Mónica, 2006. "Propiedad y Desempeño de la Banca: ¿Importa la Política?," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 2168, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Shkendije Himaj, 2014. "Corporate Governance in Banks and its Impact on Risk and Performance: Review of Literature on the Selected Governance Mechanisms," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 3(3), pages 53-85.
    20. Andries, Natalia & Billon, Steve, 2010. "The effect of bank ownership and deposit insurance on monetary policy transmission," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 3050-3054, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP-517;

    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:idb:brikps:1543. 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: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.html .

    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.