摘要:1991年蘇聯解體,原屬於蘇維埃政府的東歐共產國家迅速瓦解。這些東歐轉型中國家嘗試建立民主政治以及市場導向經濟制度,因此紛紛解除對金融機構的諸多管制、開放外國銀行進入以及公營銀行逐漸轉為民營銀行。因此,探討所有權差異對銀行效率影響便是一有趣議題。本研究收集14個轉型中國家之商業銀行,研究期間為1993年至2004年,共計12年之不平衡縱橫資料。從銀行追求極小化成本假設,推導出包含技術與配置無效率參數的Fourier影子成本函數。透過Shephard’s Lemma,導出影子份額函數,經整理後可導出實際成本與影子成本之關係以及實際成本份額與影子成本份額,加入隨機干擾項後,形成一聯立方程式體系後便進行估計。由於待推估參數過多,概似函數十分不易收斂。Kumbhakar and Lovell (2000)頁295,建議改用兩步驟法進行估計。本文採用三種投入三種產出的成本函數,與先前文獻不同之處在多放入非利息收入這一產出變數,另外,為達到全面性地探討還考慮環境變數對轉型中國家銀行業效率影響。
本文採用最大概似法估計Fourier影子成本函數,估計出來的係數估計值,可計算轉型中國家銀行之經濟效率。實證結果發現技術無效率情形較配置無效率嚴重,與之前文獻吻合,同時其又比未將技術效率與配置效率分離計算的經濟效率低。換句話說,轉型中國家的確存在配置無效率問題,只不過技術無效率似乎更為嚴重。所以轉型中國家銀行當務之急便是提升生產技術水準,如藉由鼓勵行員在職訓練以提升其素質。其次在估計配置無效率參數時,得到資本投入與資金投入相對於勞動投入有使用過多傾向,根據邊際技術替代率等於要素投入價格比,銀行應減少資本投入與資金投入,以達到配置效率。另外把所有權形式區分為公營銀行、外國銀行與民營銀行來進行討論,技術效率方面,外國銀行最高,其次為公營銀行、民營銀行。至於配置效率方面,外國銀行效率仍是最高。本研究另一發現則是轉型中國家銀行業長期平均而言處在規模報酬遞減階段,原因可能是轉型中國家銀行生產方式不同,傾向勞力密集式生產技術,生產規模擴大不易降低長期平均成本。
Abstract: This paper attempts to employ a FF cost function to help shed some light on the TE and AE of the banking industry in transition countries. The inclusion of both TI and AI in a cost function is advocated by Atkinson and Cornwell (1994a) and Kumbhakar and Wang (2006a). The technical inefficiency term is further linked with a set of environmental variables to take care of the effect of nondiscretionary factors on the TE. One attractive feature of our approach is the assumption of shadow FF cost minimization, which allows for country-specific estimates of allocative inefficiency. A panel data set consisting of 340 banks from 14 transition countries spanning 1993-2004 are compiled for our empirical study. The null hypothesis that the translog function form is an appropriate specification is rejected by the data, in favor of the FF function form. Evidence is found that failure to subsume potential allocative inefficiency tends to bias the parameter estimates, even though the allocative inefficiency is not serious for the specific data. This causes an overestimation of TE and distorts the SE (see footnote 7), since its calculations require the use of the biased parameter estimates.
The financial systems in the transition economies have experienced tremendous changes since the collapse of communism in 1989. In particular, the extent of government interventions is largely lessened. The financial liberalization and privatization appear to bring forth somewhat positive effects on banks’ TE over time, while AE is kept on a high level with small variations. Profitability and real GDP per capita are positively associated with TE. For the FF cost frontier, the estimated total cost savings resulting from both greater TE and AE vary between 17.73%-48.62% and 0.52%-18.78%, respectively, among the sample states. Evidently, measure TI dominates measure AI so that the promotion of managerial capability should be the top priority for the sample banks. Foreign-owned banks outperform the other two types of banks, whereas domestic private banks do not show their superiority due to some historical and institutional reasons out of these banks’ control. It is recommended to allow for a high degree of foreign ownership of the banks, to restructure portfolios, to conduct risk management, to apply advanced computer technology and communications systems and new sophisticated financial instruments, and to adopt new technology and innovations. These suggested remedies foster the development of a healthy and transparent financial system, help adapt to the competitive and changing global environment, and enable the sample banks to catch up with international production technology.
According to the allocative parameter estimates, banks are inclined towards over-utilizing both capital and funds relative to labor. Put differently, input labor (using total assets as its proxy) tends to be under-utilized relative to the other two inputs. This provides guidance to bank managers that eliminating the over capitalization and excess funds or the deficient labor would alleviate the allocative distortions, rather than keep extending the production scale in terms of capital and funds. Such a direction of adjustment for the input uses is consistent with the outcomes that banks in most of the transition countries exhibit decreasing returns to scale.