Identifying Determinants of Branch Performances in Agricultural Bank of China: A Spatial Econometric Approach

This paper identifies determinants of branches' performances in Agricultural Bank of China using the spatial econometric approach. Studies on changes of spatial patterns of a financial industry are scarce, especially at the branch level. This paper is the first attempt to take spatial interdependence and urbanisation effects into account to investigate the determinants of China's bank branches' performances from 1997 to 2011. We have chosen the world's 10th largest bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, because it discloses the most complete panel data of all. Empirical evidence indicates that spatial effects and urbanisation have large, statistically significant impacts on branches' performances. It highly and positively corresponds to tertiary industry output (domestic consumption) and urbanisation. This signals that the ABC has evolved from a state-owned specialised bank to a listed commercial bank.