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ORCID

Mouna Rekik 0000-0003-1869-2394

Maha Kalai 0000-0002-6770-6599

Keywords

Bank efficiency; Bank profitability; Economy of scale

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the determinants of the bank profitability and efficiency in conventional banks. This study compares accounting-based and economic-based measures of efficiency and profitability of conventional banks in fourteen countries. Accounting variables help explain cost and profit efficiency, but cost efficiency has little impact on profitability and profit efficiency. In fact, the study of profitability is crucial in assessing the health of organizations. However, profitability of the banking sector is particularly important as the soundness of the sector is closely related to the soundness of the entire economy. In this paper, banks’ profitability and its determinants in Tunisia as well as in 13 different countries were investigated. The determinants of bank profitability are analyzed with the data from 110 banks over the period 1999–2012 using the panel data method generalized method of moments. Our results suggest that researchers should probably focus more on profit efficiency than cost efficiency. Almost all banks are below the optimal size.

First Page

5

Last Page

23

Page Count

19

Received Date

08 May 2017

Revised Date

12 October 2017

Accept Date

20 October 201

Online Available Date

27 November 2017

DOI

10.7172/2353-6845.jbfe.2018.1.1

JEL Code

G14; G21; G32

Publisher

University of Warsaw

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