An Application of the Meta-frontier Cost Function to the Study of Bank Efficiencies and Technology Gaps in 16 European Countries

This paper investigates the performance of commercial banks across 16 European countries for the period 1994-2003, adopting the newly developed meta-frontier cost function model by Battese, Raoand and O'Donnell (2004). This model enables the decomposition of the meta-cost efficiency into two components: technical efficiency (CE) and the technology gap ratios (TGR). Most of the mean TGR values for the sample countries are much less than the mean CE values, implying that many banks utilize inferior technologies and operate off the meta-cost frontier. Results show that, over time, the average technical efficiency of the financial sectors in Europe's markets is improving and the technology gap is shrinking. Although technical inefficiencies and technology gaps remain, the current trend toward further de-specialization may lead to a more efficient banking system.