Bank Performance

Economic literature pays a great deal of attention to the performance of banks, expressed in terms of competition, concentration, efficiency, productivity and profitability. This book provides an all-embracing framework for the various existing theories in this area and illustrates these theories with practical applications.

Evaluating a broad field of research, the book describes a profit maximizing bank and demonstrates how several widely-used models can be fitted into this framework. The authors also present an overview of the current major trends in banking and relate them to the assumptions of each model, thereby shedding light on the relevance, timeliness and shelf life of the various models. The results include a set of recommendations for a future research agenda.

Offering a comprehensive analysis of bank performance, this book is useful for all of those undertaking research, or are interested, in areas such as banking, competition, supervision, monetary policy and financial stability.

Jacob Bikker is senior researcher at the Strategy Department, Supervisory Policy Division, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and professor in Banking and financial regulation at Utrecht University School of Economics, the Netherlands.

Jaap Bos is assistant professor of Finance and financial markets at Utrecht University School of Economics, the Netherlands.