Market power evolution and convergence in European banking: An empirical note

This paper undertakes an up-to-date assessment of evolution and convergence in market power over 2013 and 2018 in the Eurozone banking markets in view of the progress towards completing the banking union. The results show that average market power measured by the Lerner index displays an upward trend up until 2016 declining thereafter. Further findings by employing the panel convergence methodology of Philips and Sul (2007) fail to support the hypothesis of integration in the Eurozone banking markets through market power convergence. Furthermore, club clustering tests reveal presence of three sub-clusters of countries with different speeds of convergence.