Technical Progress, Inefficiency, and Productivity Change in U.S. Banking, 1984-1993
研究发现1984-1993年间美国商业银行平均技术效率下降，但少数银行的技术进步推动了效率前沿，使行业整体生产率提升；资产低于3亿美元的银行因技术进步不足以抵消效率下降，生产率反而下滑。
Numerous studies have found that US commercial banks are quite inefficient, and we find that, on average, banks became more technically inefficient between 1984 and 1993.Our analysis of productivity change, however, shows that technological improvements adopted by a few banks pushed out the efficient frontier, and that, on average, commercial banks experienced productivity gains.For banks with assets less than $300 million, however, technological improvement was insufficient to offset increased inefficiency, and thus productivity declined over the period.Our findings suggest that increasing inefficiency is reflective of an industry undergoing rapid technical change and adjustment of average firm size, but not necessarily a long-term decline.