Economies of Scale and Scope in Canadian Branch Banking
利用加拿大某大银行563家分行的产出与成本数据，研究分行银行业务的规模经济与范围经济，并分析零售与商业银行业务分离对效率的影响。
This study attempts to examine the nature of the production process of branch banking using detailed output and cost data obtained for a sample of 563 branches across Canada of a major Canadian bank. The branches considered span both urban and rural areas as well as retail and commercial banking operations. Transcendental logarithmic cost functions are estimated in order to shed light on two questions. First, to what extent are scale and scope economies prevalent for branch banking? Second, does the separation of retail from commerical banking, which has been facilitated through the growth of remote access terminals, automated cash dispensers, and electronic tellers lead to improved efficiency through more appropriate choices of branch size? The evidence from the sample and the estimation points to the following conclusions. First, scale economies are apparent in the $50 million to $100 million range of output; that many branches in Canada tend to operate at output levels within as well as below this rang...