This thesis analyzes devolopment of profitabilty and market structure of banking sector in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Empirical results are consistent with structure-conduct-performance hypothesis, on the other hand efficiency hypothesis seems to be unlikely. These conclusions are furthermore supported by DEA efficiency analysis. Results of non-structural Panzer-Rosse model suggest that during the period under consideration, market outcome was similar to monopolistic competiton. The results of regression analysis reveal that bank-specific variables, share of banking deposits on GDP, GDP growth and interest rates are the main drivers of banking sector profitability.

This paper analyses the competitiveness in the banking sector of eight countries in the SADC region. Both the Panzar-Rosse and the Lerner Index approaches were used for the period 2002- 2013. Although the results yield opposing outcomes, the overall findings suggest that the eight countries cannot be described as being perfectly competitive but rather suggest imperfect competition in these banking sectors. These countries could be characterised as monopolies when using the Panzar-Rosse study and monopolistically competitive when using the Lerner Index.

Eastern European countries have experienced many political upheavals and economic reforms since their declaration of independence of the U.S.S.R. Our study is intended for a series of estimations concerning the market structure of the banking in the Eastern European countries. Besides, we also attempt to assess the transformation of the competitive conditions of the banking industries in these countries. We employ three different methods for the assessment: The Panzar-Rosse Model, the Lerner index and the structural indicators (Concentration Ratio and HHI). We also use quantile regression to estimate the change of the H statistics corresponding to different deciles of the bank revenues beside the standard regression. The estimation results of the H statistics and the Lerner indice both indicate the banking markets of the Eastern European countries are characterized as monopolistic competition. Profitable banks in some countries face keener competition in the market. Besides, the Lerner index is affected by some variables, and tends to show the consistent estimation results with the H statistic in general. On the other hand, the structural indicators reveal a descending concentration in most Eastern European countries. However, the comparison between structural and non-structural methods does not support the general view that concentration undermines competition.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The South African banking industry is relatively sound and adequately capitalized high-tech service industry. It provides services to 51% of the economically active population. In the late 2001, 2002 and,2003, a number of small banks failed·due to liquidity crises, which subsequently spurred the momentum of consolidation in the industry. During this period, a great deal of mergers and acquisitions has taken place in the industry. The regulatory environment is in line with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) guidelines. The regulations regarding foreign banks are evidently a barrier to foreign bank entry, which could spur the level of competition in the industry In this thesis the level of market concentration is calculated using concentration ratios, CR. and CRs, for four product markets. The concentration ratio R. ranges from 77% for investment products, 79% for deposit market, 89% for installment sales market to 95% for credit card markets. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (RH!) as calculated by reserve bank is 1750 by the end of year 2002, compared with the thresholds set by American Department of Justice; this falls short by only 50 from the range of the highly concentrated markets, which is above 1800 points. The methodology used to test competition, one of the new empirical industrial organization models, is the Panzar-Rosse reduced form revenue function. The P-R reduced form revenue function estimates the competitive conduct by the extent to which changes in factor price is reflected in revenue. The reduced form revenue function is estimated based on unbalanced panel of 15 banks for the period of 1993 to 2002 using fixed effects panel data econometrics. The estimated H-statistic is 0.516,