Determinants of Cost Efficiency: Evidence from Banking Sectors in EU Countries

The purpose of this study was to examine the cost efficiency of banking sectors within the European Union (EU) counties during the period 2008-2017 and to find out which banking sector specific variables and macroeconomic variables influenced cost efficiency. We compared cost efficiency estimated by the traditional model of Data Envelopment Analysis presented by [15] and new cost efficiency model under different unit prices presented by [37] which aimed to make the reader aware of the pros and cons of both methods. Our second stage of analysis included estimation of the regression model in order to find out the determinants of banking sectors' cost efficiency. Panel data multiple regression was applied to find out the relationship between the depended variable (cost efficiency) and independent variables (banking sector specific variables and macroeconomic variables). Our results showed that cost efficiency was mainly explained by the capitalisation, profitability, loan risk, market structure, conditions of the economy and development of inflation.