Cross-Country Comparisons of Competition and Pricing Power in European Banking

Carbo, Santiago and Humphrey, David and Maudos, Joaquin and Molyneux, Philip (2006): Cross-Country Comparisons of Competition and Pricing Power in European Banking. Published in: Documento de Trabajo, Fundación BBVA (2006)

Abstract

Studies of banking competition and competitive behaviour both within and across countries typically utilise only one of the few measures that are available. In trying to assess the relative competitive position of banking markets in 14 European countries, we find that the existing indicators of competition often give conflicting predictions, both across countries and over time. Seeking greater consistency, we attempt to separate bank pricing power from other, non-core, influences embodied in competition measures. While there is some improvement in cross-country consistency, the main result is that our measure of bank pricing power suggests that banking market competition in Europe may well be stronger than implied by traditional measures and analysis.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Competition; banking
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L13 - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D43 - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection; G - Financial Economics > G2 - Financial Institutions and Services > G21 - Banks ; Depository Institutions ; Micro Finance Institutions ; Mortgages

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