An empirical study of bank efficiency in China after WTO.pdf

Global Finance Journal 24 (2013) 153–170 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Global Finance Journal j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /gf jAn empirical study of bank efficiency in China after WTO accession Haiyan Yin a,?, Jiawen Yang b, Jamshid Mehran a a Indiana University South Bend, United States b The George Washington University, United Statesa r t i c l e i n f o? Corresponding author at: 1700 Mishawaka Ave., So E-mail address: haiyin@ (H. Yin). 1 See Yao, Jiang, Feng, and Willenboackel (2007), B for Chinas banking reform and restructuring. 2 The Big Four includes the Industrial and Commer and the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC). 1044-0283/$ – see front matter ? 2013 Elsevier Inc. /10.1016/j.gfj.2013.07.001a b s t r a c tAvailable online 16 July 2013 This paper documents the technical efficiency of Chinese banks over 1999–2010. With stochastic frontier analysis, we find that Chinese banks are about 18% more efficient in generating lending assets than profits.We also observe an upward trend of bank efficiency after Chinas entry to WTO in 2001. The improvement of bank efficiency is most prominent for the largest banks with substantial state ownership. We also find that majority state-owned banks are least efficient; well capitalized banks are less efficient; bank efficiency decreases with bank size at the lower end, but banks gain efficiency and realize economies of scalewhenbank size grows large enough;more fee-generating business reduces efficiency; better management improves efficiency. ? 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.JEL classification: G21 D24 O53 Keywords: Bank efficiency China Bank characteristics WTO accession1. Introduction Chinas banking industry has gone through structural reforms and significant changes in the past two decades.1 In the mid-1990s, the four specialized state-owned banks (often referred to as the “Big Four” in the banking industry in China) started their transformation from policy banks to commercial banks