Regulations, Market Structure, Institutions, and the Cost of Financial Intermediation
利用72个国家1400多家银行的数据，分析银行监管、市场结构和国家制度对银行净息差和运营成本的影响，发现监管和通胀推高中介成本，但制度因素（如经济自由）比监管本身更能解释成本差异。
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, market structure, and national institutions on bank net interest margins and overhead costs using data on over 1400 banks across 72 countries while controlling for bankspecific characteristics. The data indicate that tighter regulations on bank entry and bank activities boost the cost of financial intermediation. Inflation also exerts a robust, positive impact on bank margins and overhead costs. While concentration is positively associated with net interest margins, this relationship breaksdownwhencontrolling for regulatory impediments to competition and inflation. Furthermore, bank regulations become insignificant when controlling for national indicators of economic freedom or property rights protection, while these institutional indicators robustly explain cross-bank net interest margins and overhead expenditures. Thus, bank regulations cannot be viewed in isolation; they reflect broad, national approaches to private property and competition.