W?s jqoO POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 1900 Determinants of Differences in interest margins reflect differences in bank Commercial Bank Interest characteristic-acros M argins and P rofitability economic conditions, existing financial structure and taxation, regulation, and Some International Evidence other institutional factors. Aslh Demnirgii7-Kunt Harry Huizinga The World Bank Development Research Group March 1998 POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 1900 Summnary findings Using bank data for 80 countries for 1988-95, earning assets are less profitable. Also, banks that rely Demirgii-Kunt and Huizinga show that differences in largely on deposits for their funding are less profitable, interest margins and bank profitability reflect various as deposits require more branching and other expenses. determinants: Similarly, variations in overhead and other operating • Bank characteristics, costs are reflected in variations in bank interest margins, * Macroeconomic conditions. as banks pass their operating costs (including the * Explicit and implicit bank taxes. corporate tax burden) on to their depositors and lenders. * Regulation of deposit insurance. * In developing countries foreign banks have greater * General financial structure. margins and profits than domestic banks. In industrial * Several underlying legal and institutional indicators. countries, the opposite is true. Controlling for differences in bank activity, leverage, and e Macroeconomic factors also explain variation in the macroeconomic environment, they find (among interest margins. Inflation is associated with higher other things) that: realized interest margins and greater profitability. * Banks in countries with a more com.petitive banking Inflation brings higher costs - more transactions and sector - where banking assets constitute a larger share generally more extensive branch networks - and also of GDP - have smaller margins and are less profitable. more income from bank float. Bank income increases The bank concentration ratio also affects bank more with inflation than bank costs do. profitability; larger banks tend to have higher margins. * There is evidence that the corporate tax burden is * Well-capitalized banks have higher net interest fully passed on to bank customers in poor and rich margins and are more profitable. This is consistent with countries alike. the fact that banks with higher capital ratios have a lower - Legal and institutional differences matter. Indicators cost of funding because of lower prospective bankruptcy of better contract enforcement, efficiency in the legal costs. system, and lack of corruption are associated with lower * Differences in a bank's activity mix affect spread realized interest margins and lower profitability. and profitability. Banks with relatively high noninterest- This paper-a product of the Development Research Group -is part of a larger effort in the group to study bank efficiency. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433. Please contact Paulina Sintim-Aboagye, room MC3-422, telephone 202-473-7656, fax 202-522-1155, Internet address ademirguckunt@ -worldbank.org. March 1998. (48 pages) The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An obiective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The i papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordinsgly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the WYlorld Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Produced by the Policy Research Dissemination Center Determinants of commercial bank interest margins and profitability: some international evidence Aslh Demirgui,-Kunt and Harry Huizinga1 Keywords: bank profitability, taxation, financial structure JEL Classification: E44, G21 IDevelopment Research Group, The World Bank, and Development Research Group, The World Bank and CentER and Department of Economics, Tilburg University, respectively. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. We thank Jerry Caprio, George Kaufinan, Mary Shirley and 1998 AEA session participants for comments and suggestions. We also thank Anqing Shi for excellent research assistance and Paulina Sintim-Aboagye for help with the manuscript. 1. Introduction As financial intermediaries, banks play a crucial role in the operation of most economies. Recent research, as surveyed by Levine (1996), has shown that the efficacy of financial intermediation can also affect economic growth. Crucially, financial intermediation affects the net return to savings, and the gross return for investment. The spread between these two returns mirrors the bank interest margins, in addition to transaction costs and taxes borne directly by savers and investors. This suggests that bank interest spreads can be interpreted as an indicator of the efficiency of the banking system. In this paper, we investigate how bank interest spreads are affected by taxation, the structure of the financial system, and financial regulations such deposit insurance. A comprehensive review of determinants of interest spreads is offered by Hanson and Rocha (1986). That paper summarizes the role that implicit and explicit taxes play in raising spreads and goes on to discuss some of the determinants of bank cost and profits, such as inflation, scale economies, and market structure. Using aggregate interest data for 29 countries in the years 1975-1983, the authors find a positive correlation between interest margins and inflation. Recently, several studies have examined the impact of international differences in bank regulation using cross-country data. Analyzing interest rates in 13 OECD countries in the years 1985-1990, Bartholdy, Boyle, and Stover (1997) find that the existence of explicit deposit insurance lowers the deposit interest rate by 25 basis points. Using data from 19 developed countries in 1993, Barth, Nolle and Rice (1997) further examine the impact of banking powers on bank return on equity - controlling for a variety of bank 2 and market characteristics. Variation in banking powers, bank concentration and the existence of explicit deposit insurance do not significantly affect the return on bank equity. This paper extends the existing literature several ways. First, using bank-level data for 80 developed and developing countries in the 1988-1995 period, we provide summary statistics on size and decomposition of bank interest margins and profitability. Second, we use regression analysis to examine the underlying determinants of interest spreads and bank profitability. The empirical work enables us to infer to what extent the incidence of taxation and regulation is on bank customers and/or the banks themselves. Apart from covering many banks in many countries, this study is unique in its coverage of interest margin and profitability determinants. These determinants include a comprehensive set of bank characteristics (such as size, leverage, type of business, foreign ownership), macro indicators, taxation and regulatory variables, financial structure variables, and legal and institutional indices. Among these, the ownership variable, the tax variables, some of the financial structure variables, and the legal and institutional indicators have not been included in any previous study in this area. To check whether some of these determinants affect banking differently in developing and developed countries, we further interact these variables with the country's GDP per capita. The results indicate that bank characteristics, macro indicators, implicit and explicit financial taxation, deposit insurance, overall financial structure, and the legal and institutional environment all significantly affect bank interest spreads and profitability. 3 Our results show that well-capitalized banks have higher net interest margins and are more profitable. This is consistent with the fact that banks with higher capital ratios tend to face a lower cost of funding due to lower prospective bankruptcy costs. In addition, a bank with higher equity capital simply needs to borrow less in order to support a given level of assets. Differences in the bank activity mix also have an impact on spreads and profitability. Our results show that banks with relatively high non-interest earning assets are less profitable. Also, banks that rely largely on deposits for their funding are less profitable, as deposits apparently require high branching and other expenses. Similarly, variation in overhead and other operating costs is reflected in variation in bank interest margins, as banks pass on their operating costs to their depositors and lenders. The international ownership of banks also has a significant impact on bank spreads and profitability. Foreign banks, specifically, realize higher interest margins and higher profitability than domestic banks in developing countries. This finding may reflect that in developing countries a foreign bank's technological edge is relatively strong, apparently strong enough to overcome any informational disadvantage. Foreign banks, however, are shown to be less profitable in developed countries. Macroeconomic factors also explain variation in interest margins. We find that inflation is associated with higher realized interest margins and higher profitability. Inflation entails higher costs - more transactions, and generally more extensive branch networks - and also higher income from bank float. The positive relationship between inflation and bank profitability implies that bank income increases more with inflation 4 than bank costs. Further, high real interest rates are associated with higher interest margins and profitability, especially in developing countries. This may reflect that in developing countries demand deposits frequently pay zero or below market interest rates. Banks are subject to implicit and explicit taxation which may affect their operations. Implicit taxes include reserve and liquidity requirements that are remunerated at less-than-market rates.2 We find that reserves reduce interest margins and profits especially in developing countries, since there the opportunity cost of holding reserves tends to be higher and remuneration rates are lower. Explicit taxes translate into higher net interest margins and bank profitability. In fact, the regression coefficients suggest that the corporate tax is fully passed on to bank customers in poor and rich countries alike, and is not simply a tax on bank rents. This result is consistent with the common notion that bank stock investors need to receive a net-of-company-tax return that is independent of this company tax. The existence of an explicit deposit insurance scheme coincides with lower interest margins. The effect on bank profitability is also negative, although it is not significant. These results may reflect design and implementation problems inherent in explicit deposit insurance systems. Regarding financial structure, banks in countries with a more competitive banking sector -- where banking assets constitute a larger portion of the GDP -- have smaller margins and are less profitable. The bank concentration ratio positively affects bank 2 Directed and subsidized credit practices that interfere with the banks' credit allocation policies represent additional implicit taxes. However, due to lack of data for most of the countries in our sample we do not evaluate the impact of such practices here. 5 profitability, and larger banks tend to have higher margins. A larger stock market capitalization to GDP increases bank margins, reflecting possible complementarity between debt and equity financing. A larger stock market capitalization to bank assets, however, is related negatively to margins, suggesting relatively well-developed stock markets can substitute for bank finance. Finally, we find that legal and institutional differences matter. Indicators of better contract enforcement, efficiency of the legal system and lack of corruption are associated with lower realized interest margins and lower profitability. Section 2 next describes the basic approach of this study. Section 3 discusses the data. Section 4 presents the empirical results. Section 5 concludes. 2. Investigating banking spreads andprofitability The efficiency of bank intermediation can be measured by both ex ante and ex post spreads. Ex ante spreads are calculated from the contractual rates charged on loans and rates paid on deposits. Ex post spreads consist of the difference between banks' interest revenues and their actual interest expenses. The ex ante measures of spread are biased to the extent that differences in perceived risks are reflected in the ex ante yields. Since bearing of risk is an important dimension of banking services, any differences in the risks faced by bankers will tend to distort spread comparisons. An additional problem with using ex ante spread measures is that data are generally available at the aggregate industry level and are put together from a variety of different sources and thus are not 6 completely consistent. For these reasons, we focus on ex post interest spreads in this paper.3 As a measure of bank efficiency, we consider the accounting value of a bank's net interest income over total assets, or the net interest margin. To reflect bank profitability, we consider the bank's before-tax profits over total assets, or before tax profit/ta. By straightforward accounting, before tax profit/ta is the sum of after-tax profits over total assets, or net profit/ta, and taxes over total assets, or tax/ta. From the bank's income statement, before tax profit/ta further satisfies the following accounting identity: (1) before tax profit/ta = net interest margin + non-interest income/ta - overhead/ta - loan loss provisioning/ta where the non-interest income/ta variable reflects that many banks also engage in non- lending activities, such as investment banking and brokerage services; the overhead/ta variable accounts for the bank's entire overhead associated with all its activities, while loan loss provisioning/ta simply measures actual provisioning for bad debts. While net interest margin can be interpreted as a rough index of bank (in)efficiency, this does not mean that a reduction in net interest margins always signals improved bank efficiency. To see this, note that a reduction in net interest margins can, for example, reflect a reduction in bank taxation or, alternatively, a higher loan default 3A problem with ex post spreads, however, is that the interest income and loan loss reserving associated with a particular loan tend to materialize in different time periods. Due to differences in nonperforming loans/or monitoring costs associated with loan quality, these spreads may not reflect efficiency differences accurately. 7 rate. In the first instance, the reduction in net interest margins reflects an improved financial market function, while in the second case the opposite may be true. Also, note that variation in an accounting ratio such as net interest margin may reflect differences in net interest income (the numerator) or differences in (say) non-lending assets (in the denominator). The data used have been converted to common international accounting standards as far as possible. All the same, there may still be some remaining differences in accounting conventions regarding the valuation of assets, loan loss provisioning, hidden reserves, etc.4 This study focuses on accounting measures of income and profitability, as (risk- adjusted) financial returns on bank stocks are equalized by investors in the absence of prohibitive barriers. For this same reason, Gorton and Rosen (1995) and Schranz (1993) also focus on accounting measures of profitability when examining managerial entrenchment and bank takeovers. The above accounting identity suggests a useful decomposition of realized interest spreads, i.e. net interest margin, into its constituent parts, i.e. into non-interest income, overhead, taxes, loan loss provisions, and after-tax bank profits. This approach, with some modifications, is taken in the study by Hanson and Rocha (1986). As a first step to analyzing the data, section 3 of the paper provides an accounting breakdown of the net interest variable, net interest margin, for individual countries and for selected aggregates. While it may be misleading to compare accounting ratios without controlling for differences in the macroeconomic environment the banks operate in and the differences in 4See Vittas (1991) for an account of the pitfalls in interpreting bank operating ratios. 8 their business, product mix, and leverage, these breakdowns still provide a useful initial assessment of differences across countries. Next, controlling for bank characteristics and the macro environment, we provide an economic analysis of the determinants of the interest and profitability variables, net interest margin, and before tax profit/ta. This empirical work also provides insights as to how bank customers and the banks themselves are affected by these variables. The net interest margin regressions specifically tell us how the combined welfare of depositors and lenders is affected by the spread determinants. The relationship between the interest spread variable and a bank's corporate taxes, for instance, informs us to what extent a bank is able to shifts its tax bill forward to its depositors and lenders. Next, the before tax profit/ta regressions give information on how spread determinants affect bank shareholders. Equivalently, the relationship between bank profitability and bank corporate income taxes reflects to what extent a bank can pass on its tax bill to any of its customers, depositors, lenders or otherwise.3 The subsequent regression analysis starts from the following basic equation: (2) Iyt = ax + a, Bit+ PAXjt + ytTt + 6jCj + s., 5Generally, taxes and other variables can change interest rates as well as quantity variables, i.e. loan and deposit volumes. In the short term, the major effects may come through pricing changes, in which case net interest margin and before tax profit/ta immediately yield easily interpreted welfare consequences for the banks and their customers. With market imperfections in the form of credit rationing or imperfect competition in the credit markets, changes in quantities generally have first order welfare implications independently of changes in prices. Quantity changes, however, are not pursued in the empirical work. 9 where Iu, = is the independent variable (either net interest margin or before tax profits/ta) for bank i in countryj at time t; B., are bank variables for bank i in countryj at time t; Xj> are country variables for countryj at time t; and T, and Cj are time and country dummy variables. Further, aO is a constant, and ai, ,B, y, and c5, are coefficients, while sit, is an error term. Several specifications of (2) are estimated that differ in which bank and country variables are included. 3. The data This study uses income statement and balance sheet data of commercial banks from the BankScope data base provided by IBCA (for a complete list of data sources and variable definitions, see the Appendix). Coverage by IBCA is very comprehensive in most countries, with banks included roughly accounting for 90 percent of the assets of all banks. We started with the entire universe of commercial banks worldwide, with the exception that for France, Germany and the United States only several hundred commercial banks listed as 'large' were included. To ensure reasonable coverage for individual countries, we included only countries where there were at least three banks in a country for a given year. This yielded a data set covering 80 countries during the years 1988-1995, with about 7900 individual commercial bank accounting observations. This data set includes all OECD countries, as well as many developing countries and economies in transition. For a list of countries, see Table 1. Table 1 provides country averages of interest spreads and bank profitability. Column 1 provides information on net interest income over assets, or net interest margin, 10 as a percentage. At the low end, there are several developed countries, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and Egypt with a net interest margin of about 1 percent. For the case of Egypt, the low net interest margin can be explained by a predominance of low-interest directed credits by the large state banking sector. Generally, developing countries, and especially Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Jamaica, display relatively large accounting spreads. This is also true for certain Eastern European countries such as Lithuania and Romania. Columns 3 though 6 provide an accounting breakdown of the net interest income into its four components: overhead minus non-interest income, taxes, loan loss provisioning, and net profits, all divided by net interest income. These shares add to one hundred percent except for cases where information on loan loss provisioning is missing. The tax/ni variable reflects the explicit taxes paid by the banks (mostly corporate income taxes). Banks also face implicit taxation due to reserve and liquidity requirements and other restrictions on lending through directed/subsidized credit policies. These indirect forms of taxing banks show up directly in lower net interest income rather than in its decomposition. Nonetheless, the tax/ni variable indicates that there is considerable international variation in the explicit taxation of commercial banks. Several countries in Eastern Europe (for example Lithuania, Hungary and the Czech Republic) impose high explicit taxes on banking. The lowest value of tax/ni is at 0 for Qatar, in the absence of significant taxation of banking. For some countries, such as Norway, Sweden or Costa Rica, low tax/ni values reflect the tax deductibility of plentiful bad debts. 11 The loan loss provisioning/ni variable is a direct measure of difference in credit quality across countries and it also reflects differences in provisioning regulations. This variable is high for some Eastern European countries. The loan loss provisioning/ni variable is also high for some developed countries such as France and the Nordic countries. As a residual, the net profits/ni variable reflects to what extent the net interest margin translates into net-of-tax profitability. Columns 7-11 of Table 1 further tabulate the various accounting ratios (relative to total assets) in the accounting identity (1) presented above. The non-interest income/ta variable reveals the importance of fee-based services for banks in different countries. Banks in Eastern Europe, for example in Estonia, Hungary, and Russia, seem to rely heavily on fee-based operations. This is also the case in some Latin American countries, such as, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and a few African countries as in Nigeria, and Zambia. The overhead/ta variable provides information on variation in bank operating costs across banking systems. This variable reflects variation in employment as well as in wage levels. Despite high wages, the overhead/ta variable appears to be lowest at around 1 percent for high-income countries, such as Japan and Luxembourg. The overhead/ta cost measure is notably high at 3.6 percent for the United States, perhaps reflecting the proliferation of banks and bank branches due to banking restrictions. In the tax/ta column, Jamaica, Lithuania, and Romania stand out with high tax-to-assets ratios of around 2 percent. Loan loss provisioning, proxied by loan loss provisioning/ta, is equally 12 high in Eastern Europe, and in some developing countries. Finally, net profits over assets, or net profit/ta, also tends to be relatively high in developing countries. In Table 2 we present statistics on accounting spreads and profitability for selected aggregates. The first breakdown is by ownership; a bank is said to be foreign- owned if fifty percent or more of its shares is owned by foreign residents. The table displays a rather small difference in the net interest margin variable for domestic banks (at 3.7 percent) and foreign banks (at 2.9 percent). This small difference, however, masks that foreign banks tend to achieve higher interest margins in developing countries, and lower interest margins in developed countries. These facts may reflect that foreign banks are less subject to credit allocation rules and have technical advantages (in developing countries), but also have distinct informational disadvantages relative to domestic banks (everywhere). Interestingly, foreign banks pay somewhat lower taxes than domestic banks (as indicated by the tax/ta variable). This difference may reflect different tax rules governing domestic and foreign banks, but also foreign banks' opportunities to shift profits internationally to minimize their global tax bill. Foreign banks also have a relatively low provisioning as indicated by loan loss provisioning/ta, which is consistent with the view that foreign banks generally do not engage in retail banking operations. The next breakdown in the table is by bank size. For countries with at least 20 banks, large banks are defined as the 10 largest banks by assets. Large banks tend to have 6See Claessens, Demirgfa9-Kunt and Huizinga (1997) for more detailed information on the average spreads of domestic and foreign banks for different groupings of countries by income. This paper also considers how entry by foreign banks affects the interest spreads and operating costs of domestic banks. 13 lower margins and profits and smaller overheads. They also pay relatively low direct taxes, and have lower loan loss provisioning. The table also considers bank groupings by national income levels and location.7 Analyzing data on 4 income levels, we see that the net interest margin is highest for the middle income groups. Banks in the middle income group also have the highest values for the overhead/ta, tax/ta, and loan loss provisioning/ta variables. The net profit/ta variable tends to be highest for banks in the lower income groups. Banks in the high income group, instead, achieve the lowest net interest margin, and they face the lowest ratios of overhead, taxes, loan loss provisioning, and net profits to assets. Next, the breakdown by regions reveals that the net interest margin is highest in the transitional economies at 6.4 percent, and also rather high in Latin America at 6.2 percent, while it is the lowest for industrialized countries at 2.7 percent. The transitional countries further stand out with high ratios of overhead, taxes, loan loss provisioning, and net profits to assets. Industrialized countries, have the lowest net profit/ta value at 0.4 percent, probably due to high level of competition in banking services. Figures 1 and 2 also illustrate income decomposition for different regions. Table 3 provides information on some of the macroeconomic and institutional indicators used in the regression analysis. The data is for 1995, or the most recent year available. The tax rate variable is computed on a bank-by-bank basis as taxes paid divided by before-tax profits. The figure reported in the table is the average for all banks in the country in 1995. The reserves/deposits variable is defined as the banking system's 7For country groupings by income, see the World Development Report (1996). Countries in transition are China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovenia. 14 aggregate central bank reserves divided by aggregate banking system deposits. Actual reserve holdings reflect required as well as excess reserves. Reserves are generally remunerated at less-than-market rates, and therefore actual reserves may be a reasonable proxy for required reserves, as averaged over the various separate deposit categories. For several developing countries, Botswana, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jordan, and for Greece, the reserves ratio is above 40 percent, indicating substantial financial repression. In contrast, this ratio is rather low in Belgium, France and Luxembourg at 0.01. The deposit insurance variable is a dummy variable that takes on a value of one if there is an explicit deposit insurance scheme (with defined insurance premia and insurance coverage), and a value of zero otherwise. Even for the case of an explicit deposit insurance scheme, however, the ex post insurance coverage may prove to be higher than the de jure coverage, if the deposit insurance agency chooses to guarantee all depositors. With a value of zero, there is no explicit deposit insurance, even if there may be some type of implicit insurance by the authorities. Next, the table presents some indicators of financial market structure. The concentration variable is defined as the ratio of the three largest banks' assets to total banking sector assets. As is well known, the concentration of the U.S. banking market is rather low, at a value of 16 percent, compared to values of about 50 percent for France and Germany.8 The number of banks in the table reflects the number of banks in the data set with complete information. The banklgdp ratio defined as the total assets of the deposit money banks divided by GDP. This ratio reflects the overall level of development s The U.S. figure may understate the the concentration ratio in individual banking markets, as protected from outside competition by banking restrictions. 15 of the banking sector. The next variable, mcap/gdp is the ratio of stock market capitalization to GDP, as a measure of the extent of stock market development. Developing countries tend to have lower bank/gdp and mcap/gdp ratios, with some notable exceptions. Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand, for instance, have relatively high ratios for both variables. The final column in the table provides an index of law and order, which is one of the institutional variables used in the regression analysis. This variable is scaled from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating sound political institutions and strong court system. Lower scores, in contrast, reflect a tradition where physical force or illegal means are used to settle claims. The table reflects that there is considerable variation in legal effectiveness among countries in the sample. 4. Empirical results This section presents regression results. Table 4 and Table 5 report the results of regressions of the net interest margin and before tax profit/ta variables, respectively. All regressions include country and year fixed effects. The tables include several specifications, with the basic specification including a set of bank-level variables, and macroeconomic indicators as regressors. These are important control variables which we include in all specifications. Subsequently, we add the taxation variables, the deposit insurance index, financial structure variables, and legal and institutional indicators. The deposit insurance index, is again excluded from the specification in columns 4 and 5, while the financial structure variables are excluded from the specification in column 5. 16 The reason for dropping some variables from regressions 4 and 5 is that we wish to ensure that banks from a reasonable number of countries is included in the regressions. The estimation technique is weighted least squares, with the weight being the inverse of the number of banks for a the country in a given year. This weighing corrects for the fact that the number of banks varies considerably across countries. The five specifications in the two tables are discussed in each of the five subsections. 4.1 Bank characteristics and macroeconomic indicators The first bank characteristic is book value of equity divided by total assets lagged one period, or equity/tatl .9 Previously, Buser, Chen and Kane (1981) have examined the theoretical relationship between bank profitability and bank capitalization. These authors find that banks generally have an interior optimal capitalization ratio in the presence of deposit insurance. Generally, banks with a high franchise value - reflecting costly bank entry - have incentives to remain well-capitalized and to engage in prudent lending behavior (see Caprio and Summers (1993), and Stiglitz (1996)). Berger (1995) provides empirical evidence that for U.S. banks there is a positive relationship between bank profitability and capitalization. The author notes that well-capitalized firms face lower expected bankruptcy costs for themselves and their customers, thereby reducing their cost of funding. The first columns in Table 4 and 5 confirm a positive relationship between the equity/tar, variable and net interest income and bank profitability. In the regressions, the 9 The lagging is to correct for the fact that profits - if not paid out in dividends - have a contemporaneous impact on bank equity. 17 equity/tat l variable is also interacted with GDP per capita (measured in units of constant $1,000 dollars for the year 1987). The positive coefficient on the interaction variables in the before tax profit/ta regression can reflect a higher bank franchise value in wealthier countries. The coefficients for the equity/tat . variable and the interaction with per capita GDP together indicate how the equity/assets ratio affects the bank variables in countries with different income levels. For a country with a per capita GDP of $10,000, for instance, the point estimate of the effect of the equity/tat.l variable on before tax profit/ta is 0.067 (or 0.047 + 10x0.002). Next, there is a negative and significant coefficient on the non-interest earning assets/ta variable in the net interest margin equation, but there is no significant relationship for the before tax profit/ta equation. Note that the sign on the non-interest earning assets/ta variable interacted with per capita GDP is negative in both the net interest margin and the before tax profit/ta specifications. Apparently, in wealthier countries the presence of non-interest earning assets depresses net interest income and profitability more than in poorer countries. By contrast, the sign on loan/ta variable is positive in the net interest margin equation and negative in the before tax profit/ta equation. However, the coefficient of the variable interacted with GDP in the profit equation is positive, indicating that at higher income levels banks' lending activities tend to be more profitable. On the liability side, customer and short-term funding consists of demand deposits, savings deposits and time deposits. On average, this type of customer funding may carry a low interest cost, but it is costly in terms of the required branching network. 18 In Table 4, we see that this liability category does not significantly affect the net interest variable, while in Table 5 there is some evidence that it lowers bank profitability. Differences in overhead may also capture differences in bank business and product mix, as well as the variation in the range and quality of services. The overhead to assets ratio variable, overhead/ta, has an estimated coefficient of 0.173 in the net interest margin regression, which suggests that about a sixth of a bank's overhead cost is passed on to its depositors and lenders. The interaction of the overhead/ta variable with per capita GDP also enters with a positive coefficient, indicating there is a larger share of overhead passed on to financial customers in wealthier countries. This may reflect more competitive conditions in developed country banking markets than in the developing countries. In the before tax profit/ta regression the interaction of the overheadlta variable with per capita GDP enters negatively indicating that higher overheads eat into bank profits. The foreign ownership variable equals one, if at least 50 percent of the bank's stock is in foreign hands and it is zero otherwise. In both Tables 4 and 5, the foreign ownership variable has a positive coefficient, while its interaction with per capita GDP has a negative coefficient. This suggests that foreign banks realize relatively high net interest margins and profitability in relatively poor countries. This may reflect that foreign banks are frequently exempt from unfavorable domestic banking regulations, and may apply, superior banking techniques. Note that the point estimate of the foreign ownership effect in the net interest margin equation for a wealthy country with a per capita GDP of $20,000, however, is negative at -0.016 (i.e., 0.004 - 20x.00M1), as is the 19 effect on profitability at -0.015 (i.e., 0.005 - 20x0.001). Foreign banks' technological and efficiency advantages in developed countries may be insignificant, while there they do face informational disadvantages. This can explain that on net foreign banks in developed countries are relatively unprofitable. Next, we turn to the macro indicators in the regressions. First, per capita GDP has no significant impact on realized net interest margins, while this variable enters with a positive coefficient in the profitability equation. The per capita GDP is a general index of economic development, and thus it reflects differences in banking technology, the mix of banking opportunities, and any aspects of banking regulations omitted from the regression. Growth, defined as the growth rate of per capita real GDP, is insignificant in both spread and profit regressions. The percentage change in the GDP deflator, or inflation, is estimated to increase the net interest margin and bank profitability, although significance of the coefficients in the profitability regressions is low. This may reflect that banks obtain higher earnings from float, or the delays in crediting customer accounts, in an inflationary environment. With inflation, bank costs generally also rise. A larger number of transactions may lead to higher labor costs, and as shown by Hanson and Rocha (1986, p. 40), result in a higher bank branch per capita ratio. On net, however, the regression results suggest that the impact of inflation on profitability, while not very significant, is positive throughout. The real interest rate is constructed using the short-term government debt yield, and where not available, other short term market rates. The real interest variable enters the net interest margin and before tax profit/ta regressions positively in Table 4 and 20 Table 5, while this variable interacted with per capita GDP has a significantly negative coefficient in Table 4. Thus there is some evidence that real interest rises do not increase spreads as much in developed countries, perhaps because there deposit rates are not tied down by deposit rate ceilings as real interest rates rise. 4.2 Taxation variables Banks are subject to direct taxation through corporate income tax and other taxes; and they are subject to indirect taxation through reserve requirements. Reserve requirements are an implicit tax on banks if, as is usual, official reserves are remunerated at less-than-market rates. The corporate income tax and the reserve tax differ in important respects. First, the corporate income tax, in principle at least, can be targeted at pure profit. Corporate income tax, to the extent it is a profit tax, is relatively undistorting. 10 The reserve tax, by its very nature, is a tax proportional to the volume of deposit taking, and therefore is a distorting tax. From a welfare perspective, the corporate income tax thus appears to be superior to the reserve tax. A second important difference is that the severity of the reserve tax depends on the opportunity cost of holding reserves. This may depend on financial market conditions as much as on any tax code. Related to this second condition, reserve requirements are also an instrument of monetary policy. As far as we know, no previous empirical research on the incidence of the corporate income tax on the banking sector exists. In contrast, several studies have considered the impact of reserve requirements on bank profitability. Several studies, in 10 In practice, however, the corporate income tax may not be a pure profit tax if complete expensing of costs is not allowed. 21 particular, exist on how Federal Reserve Membership of U.S. commercial banks in the 1970s affected their profitability (see Rose and Rose (1979), and Gilbert and Rasche (1980)). Fed membership subjected banks to generally higher reserve requirements. The studies in this area generally support the notion that non-member banks were more profitable than member banks (with similar characteristics) as they held relatively little cash. Competition among member and non-member banks in the same market appears to have prevented member banks from passing their higher reserve cost on to their customers. In related work, Kolari, Mahajan, and Saunders (1988) have studied the impact of announcements of reserve requirement changes on bank stock prices using an event study methodology." Since detailed information on the reserve regulation of all our countries is not available, we use a proxy to capture bank reserves. The reserves variable in the regressions is a bank-specific variable computed as the aggregate reserves/deposit ratio of the banking system (as in Table 3) times the ratio of the bank's customer and short-term funding to its total assets. Customer and short-term funding, consisting of demand deposits, saving deposits, time deposits here proxy for reservable deposits. The reserves variable thus is an approximation of actual bank reserves that reflects differences in reserve requirement rules. In Tables 4 and 5, the reserves variable enters the regressions negatively. The regression coefficients in the net interest margin equations of Table 4 reflect two effects I Huizinga (1996), and Eijffinger, Huizinga and Lemmen (1996) examine how nonresident withholding taxes affect interest rates, while Fabozzi and Thurston (1986) examine how differences in reserve requirements are priced into money market instruments. 22 (i) less-than-market remuneration, and (ii) the impact on the bank's lending and deposit rates. The impact of the first effect is expected to be negative since under-remunerated reserves lower a bank's net interest income and profitability. The impact of the second effect could either be zero, in which case the bank bears the full cost of higher reserves, or positive, indicating that the cost of reserves is passed on to bank customers in terms of higher interest margins. From the before tax profit/ta regressions in Table 5, we see that the reserves variable negatively affects bank profitability. This suggests that the second or pass-through effect is either non-existent, or not large enough to off-set the first or direct effect. Abstracting from any pass-through, the coefficient on the reserves variable in either the net interest margin or the before tax profit/ta can also be interpreted as a bank's opportunity cost of holding reserves. The reserves variable interacted with per capita GDP enters the net interest margin and before tax profit/ta regressions positively. This positive interaction term may reflect that the opportunity cost of holding reserves is higher in wealthier countries. We capture the explicit taxes the banks pay with the variable tax rate, which is measured by a bank's tax bill divided by its pre-tax profits. This variable has a significantly positive impact on interest margins and profitability. The tax rate variable interacted with per capita GDP is negative and significant in both regressions. These results suggest that both the net interest margin and profitability increase with tax rates, but less so in richer countries. These result suggest that the corporate income tax is passed through to bank customers to some degree. 23 To calculate the extent of this pass-through, we use the estimated coefficients on the tax rate variable and its interaction with per capita GDP. Let the pass-through be defined as the increase in pre-tax profits, bp, following a one unit increase in the corporate tax bill, tax, or 6bp/8tax. Next, note that (6bp/5t)/A = ,B, where T is the tax rate, A are assets, and 1 is estimated at 0.022 - 0.0004*per capita GDP. Further 8tax/6it = (6bp/1t) + bp, as tax = tbp. It now follows that 8bp/6tax = f/(Pr + before tax profit/ta). This expression can be evaluated using mean values of T, before tax profit/ta, and per capita GDP separately for countries in each of four income groups (low income, lower middle income, upper middle income, and high income), where per capita GDP is the international average for 1995. The calculations suggest that the pass-through coefficient, 8bp/tax, equals 1.01, 0.72, 1.00, and 1.21 for countries in the four income groups, respectively.12 Essentially, these results suggest that there is a complete pass-through of the corporate income tax to bank customers. Thus there is no support for the notion that the corporate income tax is a nondistorting tax on bank profits. Generally, the corporate income tax is a source-based tax on domestically employed capital resources. A complete pass-through of this tax is consistent with the assumption that international investors demand a net-of-tax return on capital invested in a particular country independent of the country's source-based taxes. 4.3 Deposit insurance 12 For the low income countries, before tax profit/ta and T have mean values of 0.016 and 0.225 for all banks, while the average GDP per capita is $426 for the countries in this group in 1995. The calculations reflect that in higher income countries the mean value of before tax profit/ta is lower, while the value of t changes little. 24 Several studies have previously examined the impact of deposit insurance using international data. Demirguic-Kunt and Detragiache (1997) find that the existence of an explicit deposit insurance is positively associated with the probability of banking crises. Barth, Nolle and Rice (1997), however, find that no significant impact of deposit insurance on banks' return on equity for a sample of 142 banks in 1993. Boyle, and Stover (1997) estimate that deposit insurance lowers the deposit rate by 25 basis points using aggregate deposit interest rate data for 13 OECD countries during the 1985-1990 period. These authors discuss that in principle deposit insurance has a theoretically ambiguous effect on interest margins. On the one hand, the deposit rate for insured deposits should decrease given the insurance protection. On the other hand, mispriced deposit insurance provides banks with an incentive to engage in more risky lending strategies to increase the contingent pay-out from the deposit insurance agency.13 This moral hazard problem and the associated risks can lead bank creditors to demand a higher interest rate. Also, for a given risk deposit insurance may lead banks to lend money more cheaply than they otherwise would, depressing net interest margins and profitability. Even banks that do not engage in risky lending strategies themselves may experience a downward effect on interest margins on account of bank competition. The deposit insurance variable equals one if there exists an explicit deposit insurance regime. For various countries, it varies with time reflecting changes in the deposit insurance regime during the sample period. The results suggest that an explicit 13 Brewer and Mondschean (1994) offer empirical support for the nation that deposit insurance creates incentives for banks to engage in risky asset acquisition by examining the junk bond holdings of U.S. banks, while Demirguc-Kunt and Huizinga (1993) argue that deposit insurance is an important determinant of bank stock prices during the international debt crisis period of the 1980s. 25 deposit insurance scheme lowers net interest margins.14 While the impact on bank profits is also negative, this result is not significant. The negative effect on profits may not be significant due the offsetting impact of mispriced subsidies in actual deposit insurance schemes. These results suggest that explicit deposit insurance regimes do not produce higher bank profitability and margins, perhaps due to design and implementation problems. 4.4 Financial structure variables In column 4 of Tables 4 and 5 we include two sets of financial market or structure variables. First, we include the market concentration ratio, number of banks and the bank's total assets, as indicators of market structure and scale effects. Various authors, such as Gilbert (1984), Berger (1995), and Goldberg and Rai (1996), have pointed out that such variables may proxy for market power as well as for differences in bank efficiency. No attempt is made here to distinguish between the corresponding market power and efficient structure hypotheses. The second set of variables are financial structure variables in the sense that they measure the importance of bank and stock market finance - relative to GDP and to each other. Reasons why these variables matter may also hinge on market power arguments. A high bank credit-to-GDP ratio, for instance, may reflect a high demand for banking services fueling competition among banks. Secondly, these variables can reflect any 14 Deposit insurance may affect margins and profits also through its effect on financial structure by encouraging new entry and making operation of small banks feasible. However, when we include financial structure variables in the regression the results do not change. 26 complementarity or substitutability between bank and stock market finance. The Miller- Modigliani theorem states that debt and equity finance are purely substitutes in the absence of taxes and bankruptcy costs. In practice, however, debt and equity finance may also be complementary, as modeled in Boyd and Smith (1996). Demirgiiu-Kunt and Maksimovic (1996) provide empirical evidence that shows that ability to attract equity capital may also enhance firms' borrowing capacity, especially in underdeveloped financial markets. In this setting, easier equity finance may increase rather than reduce the demand for debt finance reflecting that these sources of finance are complements. Turning to the first set of market concentration/scale variables, we see that the bank concentration ratio, has a significant and positive impact on bank profitability, while bank size, as proxied by total assets, has a significant and positive impact on interest margins only. The number of banks variable has no significant impact on either interest margins or profits. The second set of financial structure variables have a more significant effect on bank margins as opposed to bank profits. This may indicate that these variables have a greater impact on banks' loan and deposit customers compared to other clients. Bank/gdp ratio has a significantly negative impact on margins and profits, probably reflecting more intense bank competition in well-developed financial systems. This effect is smaller in richer countries which already have relatively developed banking sectors. The stock market capitalization to GDP, or mcap/gdp, ratio enters the net interest margin equation positively, which suggests that a larger stock market per se enables banks to obtain higher interest margins. This may be due to the complementarity effect between debt and equity 27 financing discussed above. As stock markets develop, improved information availability increases the potential pool of borrowers, making it easier for banks to identify and monitor them. This increases the volume of business for banks, making higher margins possible. In the regression, the stock market capitalization to banking assets ratio, or mcap/bank, enters the interest margin equation negatively. This suggests that a larger stock market relative to the banking sector lowers bank margins, reflecting substitution possibilities between debt and equity. For both stock market development indicators, the interaction with per capita GDP enters the interest margin equation with an opposite effect. This suggests that any stock market development impact on interest margins is muted in wealthier countries. 4.5 Legal and institutional indicators The final columns in Tables 4 and 5 report regressions that include a variety of legal and institutional indicators. First, the contract enforcement dummy, ranging from 1 to 4, measures the degree to which contractual agreements are honored and not subject to language and mentality differences. A higher value means greater contract enforcement. In both the net interest margin and before tax profit/ta regressions, the contract enforcement variable has a negative and significant sign. Lower contract enforcement may in fact prompt banks to require higher interest margins and investors to require higher profitability to compensate for the additional risk. In both regressions, the contract enforcement variable interacted with per capita GDP enters positively, suggesting a muted effect of this variable in wealthier countries. 28 The law and order index, ranging from 0 to 6, captures the extent to which the legal system works well in adjucating disputes. From Table 4, we see that a higher value of the law and order index is significantly associated with lower interest margins. The reason may again be that the an effective legal system reduces the required risk premia on bank lending. For this variable, the interaction with per capita GDP enters the equation negatively, however. Finally, the corruption index, ranging from 0 to 6, reflects a lack of corruption in government. Specifically, a higher score indicates that government officials are less likely to take bribes. The results of Table 4 now indicate that cleaner government (or a higher value for the corruption index) is associated with lower realized interest spreads, and this less so in wealthier countries. Again, banks may require a lower risk premium on their investments in countries which has an environment relatively free of corruption. Overall, the regressions indicate that the underlying legal and institutional variables are important in explaining cross-country variation in interest spreads and bank profitability. For two of the three variables, the interaction with per capita GDP has a coefficient of opposite sign, suggesting muted effects of institutional differences in wealthier countries. 6. Conclusions Banking systems around the world differ widely in size and operation. Across countries, commercial banks have to deal with different macroeconomic environments, different explicit and implicit tax policies, deposit insurance regimes, financial market conditions, and legal and institutional realities. Using a comprehensive cross-country data 29 set with bank-level data, this paper analyzes how bank characteristics and the overall banking environment affect the functioning of banks, as reflected in interest margins and bank profitability. In this paper we confirm some findings in earlier research, for instance a positive relationship between capitalization and profitability, and a negative relationship between reserves and profitability. Other important determinants of bank margins and profitability, such as ownership, corporate taxation, financial structure and the legal and institutional setting have not been considered in the literature. The paper finds that foreign ownership is associated with higher interest margins and bank profitability, especially in developing countries. Similarly, several institutional factors, such as indices of credit rights, law and order and corruption, and differences in financial structure, have more pronounced effects on interest margins and bank profitability in developing countries than in developed countries. These results may reflect the relatively closed nature of banking markets in developing countries. Coupled with earlier empirical evidence that a weak institutional environment makes banking crises more likely (Demirguc-Kunt and Detragiache, 1997), these results suggest that returns to improving underlying institutions are indeed high. Reserves also have a more pronounced impact on margins and profitability in developing countries than in developed countries. This latter result may simply reflect the relatively high opportunity cost of holding reserves in poorer and more inflationary countries. 30 The corporate income tax appears to be passed on fully to bank customers, in developing and developed countries alike. This finding is consistent with the notion that bank stock investors require net-of-company-tax returns independent of the level of company taxation. It also implies that the corporate income tax on banks is likely to distort the underlying saving and investment decisions, with possibly negative implications for economic growth. These considerations have to weigh heavily in considering the merits of the corporate income tax on banks as part of the overall tax system. On the other hand, we find that official reserves depress bank profits. Prima facie this suggests that reserve requirements are a better instrument to tax bank profits than the corporate income tax. Note that the implicit reserve tax in many countries, however, is much more variable than the corporate income tax. The level of banking investment and activity therefore is unlikely to be adjusted to each and every change in the implicit reserve tax. Variability in the reserve tax therefore can go a long way towards explaining the responsiveness of bank profits to this tax. These issues are further pursued in Demirgiic-Kunt and Huizinga (1997). Several other topics remain for further study. Countries worldwide differ considerably in the extent of foreign ownership of their banking systems. An interesting issue is how the entry by foreign banks affects the operation of domestic banking firms. In principle, foreign entry can affect the pricing by domestic firms, and force them to reduce their operating costs and to remain competitive. Both of these effects determine 31 whether the entry of foreign firms is overall welfare improving. We address the impact of foreign entry in Claessens, Demirgiiu-Kunt and Huizinga (1997). As a related issue, it is interesting to consider what determines foreign bank entry. Foreign bank entry, and foreign direct investment generally, may well be driven by the different (worldwide) taxation of domestic and foreign firms rather than simply by countries' comparative advantage in providing financial services. We have found some evidence that government regulations, such as the design of deposit insurance schemes have an impact on bank margins. It would be interesting to analyze this issue further by taking into account differences in design features. We intend to return to these issues in future work. 32 References Barth, James R., Daniel E. Nolle, and Tara N. Rice, 1997, Commercial banking structure, regulation, and performance, an international comparison, Comptroller of the Currency Economics Working Paper 97-6. Bartholdy, Jan, Glenn W. Boyle, and Roger D. Stover, undated, Deposit insurance, bank regulation and interest rates: some international evidence, mimeo, University of Otago, New Zealand. Berger, Allen N., 1995, The profit-structure relationship in banking - tests of market- power and efficient structure hypotheses, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 27, 404-431. Berger, Allen N., 1995, The relationship between capital and earnings in banking, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 27, 432-456. Boyd, J. and B. Smith, 1996, The coevolution of the real and financial sectors in the growth process, World Bank Economic Review, 10, 371-396. Brewer, Elijah III, and Thomas H. Mondschean, 1994, An empirical test of the incentive effects of deposit insurance, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 26, 146-164. Buser, Stephen A., Andrew H. Chen, and Edward J. Kane, 1981, Federal deposit insurance, regulatory policy, and optimal bank capital, Journal of Finance 35, 51- 60. Caprio, Gerard, Jr., and Lawrence H. Summers, 1993, Finance and its reform, beyond laissez-faire, Policy Research Working Paper 1171, World Bank. Claessens, Stijn, Ash- Demirguc-Kunt, and Harry Huizinga, 1997, How does foreign entry affect the domestic banking market?, mimeo, World Bank. Demirguic-Kunt, Aslh, and Enrica Detragiache, 1997, The determinants of banking crises: evidence from developed and developing countries, mimeo, World Bank. Demirguc-Kunt, Aslh, and Harry Huizinga, 1993, Official credits to developing countries: implicit transfers to the banks, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 25, 430- 444. Demirgui,-Kunt, Aslh, and Harry Huizinga, 1997, Taxation of banking: International Evidence, mimeo, World Bank. 33 Demirguic-Kunt, Aslh, and Vojislav Maksimovic, 1996, Stock market development and financing choices of firms, The World Bank Economic Review 10, 341-369. Eijffinger, Sylvester, Harry Huizinga, and Jan Lemmen, 1996, Short-term and long-term government debt and nonresident interest withholding taxes, CentER Discussion Paper 9688, Tilburg University. Fabozzi, Frank J., and Thom B. Thurston, 1986, State taxes and reserve requirements as major determinants of yield spreads among money market instruments, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 21, 427-436. Gilbert, R. Alton, 1984, Banking market structure and competition, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 16, 617-660. Gilbert, R. Alton, and Robert H. Rasche, 1980, Federal Reserve Bank membership, Effects on bank profits, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 12, 448-461. Goldberg, Lawrence G., and Anoop Rai, 1996, The structure-performance relationship for European banking, Journal of Banking and Finance 20, 745-771. Gorton, Gary, and Richard Rosen, 1995, Corporate control, portfolio choice, and the decline of banking, Journal of Banking 50, 1377-1420. Hanson, James A., and Roberto de Rezende Rocha, 1986, High interest rates, spreads, and the cost of intermediation, two studies, Industry and Finance Series 18, World Bank. Huizinga, Harry, 1996, The incidence of interest withholding taxes: evidence from the LDC loan market, Journal of Public Economics 59, 435-451. Kyei, Alexander, 1995, Deposit protection arrangements: a comparative study, IMF Working Paper 95/134. Kolari, James, Arvind Mahajan, and Edward M. Saunders, 1988, The effects of changes in reserve requirements on bank stock prices, Journal of Banking and Finance 12, 183-198. Levine, Ross, 1996, Financial development and economic growth, Policy Research Paper 1678, The World Bank (forthcoming in Journal of Economic Literature). Rose, John T., and Peter S. Rose, 1979, The burden of Federal Reserve System membership, a review of the evidence, Journal of Banking and Finance 3, 331 - 345. 34 Schranz, Mary S., 1993, Takeovers improve firm performance: evidence from the banking industry, Journal of Political Economy 101, 299-326. Stiglitz, Joseph E., and Marilou Uy, 1996, Financial markets, public policy, and the East Asian miracle, The World Bank Economic Observer 11, 249-276. Tally, Sam, and Ignacio Mas, 1990, Deposit insurance in developing countries, mimeo, World Bank. Vittas, Dimitri, 1991, Measuring commercial bank efficiency, use and misuse of bank operating ratios, Policy Research Working Paper 806, World Bank. World Development Report, 1996, World Bank. 35 Table 1. Bank Spreads and Profitability: Country Averages 1988-1995 Ratios are calculated for each bank in each country and then averaged over the country's sample period. All ratios are in percentages. Data are from BankScope data base of the IBCA and in percent. Net interest margin is defined as net interest income over total assets. Overhead/ni - non-interest income is overhead over net interest income - non-interest income all over assets. Tax/ni is total taxes paid over net interest income. Loan loss provision/ni is loan loss provisions over net interest income and Net profit/ni is net profits over net interest income. Non-interest income/ta is net non- interest income over total assets. Overhead/ta is overhead divided by total assets. Tax/ta is taxes paid over total assets. Loan loss provisuons/ta is loan loss provisions over total assets. Net profit/ta is net profits divided by total assets. Net Interest of which: Non-int. Overhead/ta Tax/ta Loan loss Net margin Overhd Tax/ni Loan loss Net income/ta prov./ta profit/ta -non- prov./ni profit/ni int.inc /ni Argentina 7.3 35.6 5.5 28.5 30.3 6.3 9.4 0.4 1.8 2.0 Australia 3.0 32.8 8.5 28.1 33.2 1.3 2.8 0.3 0.7 0.6 Austria 1.7 54.9 6.8 25.7 24.8 0.5 1.5 0.1 0.5 0.3 Bahrain 2.2 30.8 2.7 32.9 43.3 0.8 1.4 0.0 0.6 1.1 Belgium 2.0 48.7 10.2 20.4 24.0 0.9 2.1 0.2 0.4 0.4 Bolivia 3.1 73.7 1.9 12.6 12.6 2.0 5.2 0.6 0.6 -1.1 Botswana 6.0 43.7 11.8 12.9 31.5 2.8 5.4 0.7 0.7 1.9 Brazil 8.9 60.5 11.6 13.8 17.5 4.5 10.2 1.1 1.3 1.4 Canada 2.9 47.3 12.7 21.5 19.0 1.2 2.5 0.4 0.6 0.6 Chile 4.3 71.7 2.4 13.8 14.2 -0.1 3.0 0.1 0.6 0.5 China 2.1 30.0 15.9 . 54.2 1.0 1.6 0.3 . 1.2 Colombia 6.0 53.8 10.3 12.9 27.7 5.8 8.3 0.7 0.9 2.2 Costa Rica 13.6 40.7 4.7 57.6 9.9 3.5 8.1 0.8 5.7 3.5 Cyprus 1.0 59.1 11.1 15.8 22.0 3.1 3.2 0.3 0.3 0.5 Czech Rep. 3.3 13.5 23.2 53.4 13.6 1.5 2.1 0.6 2.0 0.3 Denmark 4.8 52.9 5.4 33.3 8.6 1.0 3.7 0.3 1.6 0.3 Dominican Rep. 6.6 52.8 8.6 9.1 30.9 3.1 6.3 0.6 0.5 2.3 Ecuador 7.7 52.8 4.7 12.8 34.9 3.8 8.1 0.4 1.0 2.5 Egypt 1.4 -32.7 11.2 62.6 63.5 2.1 1.4 0.3 0.7 1.2 El Salvador 3.2 34.3 1.9 14.0 49.8 1.6 2.9 0.1 0.4 1.5 Estonia 4.7 -35.9 24.1 . 111.7 8.7 7.0 1.1 . 5.3 Finland 1.8 50.1 9.4 55.6 -10.7 1.2 2.1 0.2 0.8 -0.1 France 2.4 48.3 7.0 50.8 -1.7 1.4 2.6 0.2 1.0 0.1 Table 1. Continued Net Interest of which: Non-int. Overhead/ta Tax/ta Loan loss Net margin Overhd Tax/ni Loan loss Net income/ta prov./ta profit/ta -non- prov./ni profit/ni int.inc/ni Germany 2.0 51.6 12.3 29.5 12.6 1.1 2.1 0.3 0.6 0.3 Greece 3.0 33.8 12.7 25.7 29.7 2.2 3.4 0.4 0.6 1.0 Guatemala 5.6 80.5 3.6 . 16.0 1.4 5.7 0.2 . 1.1 Haiti 2.8 53.8 7.3 12.4 26.5 2.8 4.2 0.2 0.4 0.8 Honduras 4.3 72.3 9.8 . 17.9 0.9 4.0 0.4 . 0.8 Hong Kong 2.5 17.1 10.2 6.0 67.8 1.3 1.4 0.3 0.2 2.0 Hungary 4.7 17.5 13.7 68.8 29.9 5.8 7.0 0.6 2.7 1.4 India 4.0 18.2 12.4 19.3 50.2 1.6 2.0 0.6 0.7 2.3 Indonesia 3.6 47.5 10.9 17.8 26.2 1.2 2.9 0.4 0.7 0.9 Ireland 3.6 56.4 8.4 11.6 23.5 0.9 2.9 0.3 0.5 0.8 Israel 2.8 41.9 17.1 23.6 17.3 1.8 3.2 0.4 0.7 0.4 Italy 3.4 56.5 14.3 17.4 11.9 1.4 3.3 0.5 0.5 0.4 Jamaica 10.5 33.9 21.2 2.2 43.1 2.8 6.3 2.2 0.3 4.5 Japan 1.6 61.9 16.2 10.0 12.1 0.2 1.3 0.2 0.1 0.2 Jordan 2.1 48.0 10.4 24.1 24.5 1.4 2.4 0.2 0.5 0.5 Korea 1.8 36.4 12.5 34.0 29.9 1.5 2.2 0.2 0.5 0.5 Lebanon 2.7 45.6 9.2 13.7 35.3 0.9 2.1 0.3 0.5 0.9 Lithuania 10.6 29.8 17.5 81.7 -22.2 5.0 7.5 2.0 5.8 0.7 Luxembourg 0.8 -11.5 28.2 52.7 46.0 0.9 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.3 Malaysia 2.7 40.0 15.9 17.3 29.2 0.8 1.9 0.4 0.4 0.8 Malta 2.4 37.6 18.0 6.2 39.1 1.1 2.0 0.4 0.1 0.9 Mexico 4.6 40.8 6.1 42.2 15.4 2.1 4.5 0.3 1.1 0.9 Morocco 3.A 66.8 13.6 0.1 21.9 1.3 3.5 0.5 0.0 0.8 Nepal 3.6 10.5 25.3 16.1 48.1 2.1 2.4 1.0 0.5 1.8 Netherlands 1.4 43.1 9.7 21.4 26.1 1.0 1.7 0.1 0.3 0.4 Nicaragua 4.4 85.2 8.0 18.5 -10.4 3.3 6.3 0.3 0.9 0.2 Nigeria 5.3 -29.3 13.1 88.3 27.8 5.8 7.0 0.7 1.6 1.8 Norway 3.2 51.6 4.6 44.3 3.2 1.2 2.8 0.1 1.4 0.2 Table 1. Continued Net Interest of which: Non-int. Overhead/ta Tax/ta Loan loss Net margin Overhd Tax/ni Loan loss Net income/ta prov./ta profit/ta -non. prov./ni profit/ni int.inc/ni Oman 4.1 43.1 5.5 15.2 36.2 1.4 3.3 0.2 0.6 1.4 Pakistan 2.8 38.8 28.6 . 32.6 1.8 2.9 0.9 . 0.8 Panama 2.1 29.9 4.3 20.3 46.4 1.4 2.0 0.1 0.4 1.0 PapuaN. Guin. 3.2 -2.6 20.2 40.8 45.8 4.2 5.0 0.4 0.9 1.1 Paraguay 5.9 63.5 5.5 11.4 23.3 2.5 6.2 0.4 0.7 1.5 Peru 6.5 43.8 14.3 47.0 12.1 5.7 9.6 0.7 1.7 0.8 Philippines 4.1 29.8 6.6 10.3 55.0 3.0 4.3 0.3 0.4 2.2 Poland 6.1 16.8 27.9 23.3 34.9 2.4 3.6 1.6 1.3 2.1 Portugal 3.3 45.9 8.0 25.5 23.7 1.0 2.5 0.3 0.9 0.7 Qatar 1.9 6.6 0.0 15.0 85.2 1.1 1.3 0.0 0.2 1.6 Romania 9.7 1.9 26.2 36.8 44.3 2.4 2.8 2.3 3.7 4.3 Russia 4.7 -5.0 33.3 47.2 37.1 10.9 7.0 1.9 2.6 4.7 Singapore 2.2 20.7 21.6 8.7 56.4 1.0 1.4 0.5 0.1 1.3 S. Africa 3.9 45.1 11.8 16.1 29.0 1.9 3.6 0.5 0.7 1.1 Spain 3.6 60.3 10.2 17.7 12.7 1.2 3.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 SriLanka 3.7 31.8 11.1 9.7 52.5 2.0 3.0 0.5 0.4 2.1 Swaziland 5.4 52.1 16.3 2.8 30.9 2.7 5.5 0.9 0.2 1.7 Sweden 3.1 26.3 1.9 64.6 11.2 1.5 2.5 0.1 1.9 0.3 Taiwan 2.0 34.6 10.1 10.8 45.5 1.0 1.6 0.2 0.2 1.0 Tunisia 2.3 31.4 9.9 56.1 48.0 2.2 3.1 0.2 1.1 0.8 Turkey 6.3 11.7 10.0 32.9 47.2 4.0 5.4 0.8 0.8 3.3 U.K. 2.3 18.4 20.6 29.8 40.9 2.3 3.0 0.4 0.7 0.8 U.S. 3.9 47.6 12.5 15.2 25.8 1.8 3.6 0.5 0.7 1.0 Venezuela 7.2 49.9 2.7 16.7 30.6 2.8 6.4 0.2 1.0 2.5 Yemen 4.0 48.8 14.1 2.6 34.6 -0.5 1.4 0.6 0.1 1.4 Zambia -4.7 186.1 -6.6 -49.1 -30.4 9.5 0.4 0.3 2.4 1.7 Table 2. Bank Spreads and Profitability: Selected Aggregates 1988-1995 Net interest margin is defined as net interest income over total assets. Non-interest income +overhead/ni is net non-interest income plus overhead over net interest income. Tax/ni is total taxes paid over net interest income. Loan loss provision/ni is loan loss provisions over net interest income and Net profit/ni is net profits over net interest income. Overhead/ta is overhead divided by total assets. Non-interest income/ta is net non-interest income over total assets. Tax/ta is taxes paid over total assets. Loan loss provisions/ta is loan loss provisions over total assets. Net profit/ta is net profits divided by total assets. All ratios are in percentages. Data are from BankScope data base of the IBCA and in percent. A foreign bank is defined as having at least 50 percent foreign ownership. Large category includes the largest ten banks and the remaining banks are classified as small. Large versus small distinction is made only if there are more than 20 banks in a given year. The data by income group and by region are means of country averages. Income and region classifications follow World Bank definitions as published in the World Development Report (1996). Net int. of which: Non-int. Overhead/ Tax/ta Loan Net margin overhd Tax/ni Loan loss Net income/ta ta loss profit/ta -non- prov./ni profit/ni prov./ta int.inc. /ni Total 3.5 43.1 11.5 24.8 20.6 1.6 3.2 0.3 0.8 0.8 Ownership Domestic 3.7 46.2 11.1 22.8 19.9 1.6 3.3 0.4 0.8 0.8 Foreign 2.9 29.0 13.1 33.5 24.4 1.6 2.8 0.3 0.7 0.8 Size Large 2.6 35.5 13.1 27.5 23.9 1.2 2.5 0.3 0.6 0.5 Small 3.4 48.0 11.9 22.0 18.2 1.5 3.1 0.4 0.7 0.7 Income Groups Low income 2.8 37.9 11.3 20.0 30.8 3.2 3.1 0.5 0.8 1.5 Lower middle income 5.7 36.8 11.0 24.9 27.2 3.2 5.1 0.7 1.3 1.8 Upper middle income 4.1 32.7 11.2 27.3 28.8 2.1 3.8 0.4 1.0 0.9 High income 2.6 30.0 10.3 31.8 27.9 1.2 2.3 0.2 0.7 0.5 Regions Africa 4.8 49.2 11.1 18.6 22.4 3.5 5.3 0.6 0.8 1.5 Asia 3.0 20.1 14.7 17.3 47.9 1.8 2.4 0.4 0.5 1.5 Latin America 6.2 48.7 6.8 21.1 23.4 3.1 6.2 0.5 1.1 1.5 MiddleEastandNorth 2.9 26.1 8.5 23.4 41.9 1.6 2.6 0.3 0.5 1.1 Africa Transitional economies 6.4 13.2 21.8 51.9 13.1 4.4 4.5 1.4 3.0 1.9 Industrial economies 2.7 32.9 10.4 34.7 21.9 1.2 2.5 0.3 0.8 0.4 Table 3. Economic and Institutional Indicators GDP/CAP is the real GDP per capita in US$. Inflation is the annual inflation of the GDP deflator. Both are obtained from World Bank National Accounts. Tax rate is defined as the total taxes paid by banks divided by before tax profits. It is from BankScope data base by IBCA. Reserves/deposits is defined as the reserves of the banking system over deposits, from IMF, International Financial Statistics. Deposit Insurance is a dummy variable which takes the value one if there is an explicit deposit insurance scheme in place zero otherwise. It is compiled from Kyei (1995) and Talley and Mas (1990). Concentration is defined as the ratio of largest three bank assets to total banking assets. Number of banks is the number of banks in the data set with complete information. Both variables are obtained from BankScope data base. Bank/gdp is the total assets of the deposit money banks divided by GDP. It is obtained from IMF, International Financial Statistics. Mcap/gdp is the stock market capitalization divided by GDP. Stock market data are from IFC's Emerging Market Data Base. Law and order indicator, produced by International Country Risk rating agency, reflects the degree to which the citizens of a country are willing to accept the established institutions to make and implement laws and adjudicate disputes. It is scored 0-6 with higher scores indicating sound political institutions and a strong court system. Lower scores indicate a tradition of depending on physical force or illegal means to settle claims. For all variables 1995 figures were reported, if available. Otherwise figures are for the most recent year available. Gdp/cap Inflation Tax rate Reserves/ Deposit Concentration No. of Bank/gdp Mcap/gdp Law and (US $) deposits insurance banks order Argentina 3825 0.02 0.15 0.06 1 0.48 11 0.23 0.13 5 Australia 14542 0.03 0.47 0.02 0 0.45 44 0.77 0.70 6 Austria 16947 0.02 0.23 0.04 1 0.75 12 1.27 0.14 6 Bahrain 7902 0.02 0.01 0.10 n.a. 0.94 7 0.49 n.a 5 Belgium 16197 0.03 0.27 0.01 1 0.46 49 1.53 0.39 6 Bolivia 665 0.11 0.10 n.a. 0 0.57 11 0.43 0.01 3 Botswana 1844 0.18 0.32 0.41 n.a. 0.94 5 0.14 0.09 n.a. Brazil 2113 22.95 0.38 0.13 0 0.43 56 0.32 0.21 3 Canada 16091 0.02 0.35 0.01 1 0.56 72 0.72 0.65 6 Chile 2481 0.12 0.07 0.08 1 0.40 23 0.45 1.10 5 China 468 0.12 0.21 n.a. 0 0.99 5 0.80 0.06 n.a Colombia 1445 0.23 0.18 0.23 1 0.35 28 0.20 0.22 2 CostaRica 1936 0.23 0.09 0.59 0 0.76 22 0.15 0.07 n.a. Cyprus 7500 0.03 0.34 0.16 n.a 0.75 9 0.91 0.30 5 CzechRep. 3165 0.15 2.01 0.18 1 0.76 15 0.87 0.33 n.a. Denmark 22386 0.02 0.16 0.07 1 0.77 56 0.55 0.33 6 Dominican Rep. 829 0.13 0.19 0.25 1 0.62 13 0.17 n.a. 4 Ecuador 1243 0.23 0.12 0.10 0 0.89 6 0.24 0.15 4 Egypt 709 0.12 0.25 0.20 0 0.89 9 0.65 0.13 4 El Salvador 994 0.12 0.04 0.32 1 0.86 4 0.28 0.67 3 Table 3. Continued Gdp/cap Iflation Tax rate Reserves/ Deposit Concentration No. of Banl/gdp Mcap/gdp Law and (US S) deposits insurance banks order Estonia 2820 0.29 0.20 n.a. 0 n.a. 7 n.a. n.a. n.a. Finland 18275 0.03 0.48 0.15 1 0.70 12 0.70 0.35 6 France 18128 0.01 0.26 0.01 1 0.48 98 0.99 0.34 6 Germany 16572 0.02 0.56 0.04 1 0.50 82 1.19 0.24 6 Greece 5140 0.10 0.21 0.46 1 0.70 16 0.40 0.15 6 Guatemala 898 0.10 0.10 0.32 0 0.29 24 0.16 n.a. 3 Haiti 230 0.72 0.25 0.35 n.a. 1.00 3 0.10 n.a. 3 Honduras 900 0.25 0.33 0.14 0 1.00 3 0.22 0.09 3 HongKong 11911 0.02 0.13 n.a. 0 0.44 35 n.a. 2.17 6 Hungary 2330 0.20 0.13 n.a. 1 0.40 22 0.40 0.04 n.a. India 423 0.06 0.04 0.16 1 0.90 5 0.35 0.38 4 Indonesia 718 0.13 0.30 n.a. 0 0.38 21 0.41 0.33 5 Ireland 13653 0.01 0.26 0.05 1 0.75 12 0.46 0.42 6 israel 10515 0.10 0.53 0.07 0 0.48 26 0.91 0.42 5 Italy 15491 0.05 0.48 n.a. 1 0.27 66 0.62 0.11 6 Jatnaica 1573 0.33 0.24 0.33 0 0.52 10 0.30 0.41 3 Japan 23960 0.02 0.57 0.01 1 0.21 81 1.32 0.72 6 Jordan 1263 0.02 0.31 0.49 0 0.93 7 0.70 0.70 5 Korea 5663 0.06 0.26 0.10 0 0.17 43 0.55 0.40 5 Lebanon 1800 n.a. 0.24 0.16 1 0.61 6 0.79 n.a. n.a. Lithuania 1233 0.36 0.37 0.14 0 0.76 8 0.17 0.03 n.a. Luxembourg 21433 0.07 0.45 n.a. 1 0.30 108 0.41 0.14 6 Malaysia 3108 0.06 0.32 0.12 0 0.31 49 0.84 2.82 5 Malta 6102 0.04 0.29 0.08 n.a. 0.69 7 0.75 n.a. n.a. Mexico 1749 0.45 0.20 0.23 1 0.59 20 0.35 0.32 3 Morocco 853 0.07 0.34 0.07 n.a. 0.63 8 0.46 0.18 6 Nepal 203 0.07 0.35 n.a. n.a. 1.00 3 0.22 0.06 n.a. Netherlands 17187 0.02 0.21 0.01 1 0.84 25 1.14 0.90 6 New Zealand 12008 0.08 0.28 0.03 0 0.52 8 0.87 0.53 6 Nicaragua 786 0.09 0.22 0.27 0.63 13 0.32 n.a. n.a. Table 3. Continued Gdp/cap Inflation Tax rate Reserves/ Deposit Concentration No. of Bank/gdp Mcap/gdp Law and (US $) deposits insurance banks order Nigeria 339 0.65 0.06 0.14 1 0.87 9 0.13 0.03 3 Norway 23083 0.03 0.16 0.01 1 0.52 27 0.68 0.31 6 Oman 5696 0.04 0.12 0.05 0 0.69 6 0.29 0.15 5 Pakistan 377 0.14 0.53 0.19 0 0.73 15 0.37 0.16 2 Panama 2435 0.05 0.08 n.a. n.a. 0.54 9 0.69 0.10 3 PapuaNew Guinea 1104 0.03 0.23 0.03 n.a. 0.78 5 0.31 n.a 3 Paraguay 1049 0.13 0.17 0.33 0 0.35 23 0.20 n.a. 4 Peru 1046 0.13 0.43 0.32 1 0.65 22 0.13 0.20 3 Philippines 615 0.07 0.12 0.12 1 0.44 21 0.43 0.79 4 Poland 1903 4.65 0.40 0.10 1 0.45 32 0.29 0.04 n.a. Portugal 5199 0.11 0.14 0.03 1 0.32 38 0.88 0.19 6 Qatar 12820 n.a. 0.01 0.04 n.a. 1.00 2 0.71 n.a. n.a. Romania 1341 2.16 0.30 0.33 0 0.70 7 0.15 n.a. n.a. Russia 1989 1.90 0.46 0.19 0 0.44 18 0.12 0.05 n.a. S. Africa 2176 0.09 0.23 0.04 0 0.71 15 0.67 2.09 4 Saudi Arabia 5316 0.04 0.00 n.a. 0 0.96 4 0.41 0.33 5 Singapore 13436 0.04 0.29 0.08 0 0.48 19 0.96 1.74 6 Spain 9137 0.05 0.26 0.08 1 0.50 49 1.01 0.35 4 Sri Lanka 640 0.11 0.23 n.a. 0 0.63 7 n.a n.a. n.a. Swaziland 787 0.47 0.16 0.21 n.a. n.a. 4 0.23 0.30 n.a. Sweden 19387 0.04 -4.91 n.a. 0 0.41 18 0.62 0.78 6 Taiwan 7268 0.02 0.18 n.a. 1 0.40 25 n.a. n.a. 5 Thailand 1807 0.04 0.31 0.04 0 0.49 14 0.98 0.86 5 Tunisia 1464 0.05 0.20 0.04 n.a. 0.55 8 0.55 0.22 n.a. Turkey 1848 1.06 0.14 0.27 1 0.43 29 0.17 0.17 5 U.K. 13478 0.02 0.36 n.a. 1 0.39 71 1.12 1.27 6 U.S. 20931 0.01 0.27 0.03 1 0.16 372 0.48 0.95 6 Venezuela 2651 0.51 0.06 0.25 1 0.46 17 0.13 0.05 4 Yemen 280 n.a. 0.51 n.a n.a. 1.00 3 n.a. n.a. n.a. Zambia 247 0.55 0.34 0.08 0 1.00 3 0.10 n.a. 4 Table 4. Determinants of Net Interest Margins The regression is estimated using weighted least squares pooling bank level data across 80 countries for the 1988- 95 time period. Number of banks in each period is used to weight the observations. Regression also includes country and time dummy variables which are not reported. Dependent variable is the net interest margin defned as interest income minus interest expense over total assets. Detailed variable definitions and data sources are given in the appendix. Standard errors are given in parentheses. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Bank Characteristics Equity/ta .046*** .047*** .044*** .064*** .063*** (.007) (.007) (.007) (.007) (.006) Equity/ta 1 x gdpfcap -.001 .000 -.001 -.002** -.002*** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Loan/ta .017*** .008** .012*** .022*** .019*** (.004) (.004) (.004) (.004) (.004) Loan/ta xgdp/cap -.000 .001*** .001*** .000 .000 (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) Non-interest earning assets/ta -.016** ...020*** -.021*** -.011 -X020*** (.007) (.007) (.008) (.007) (.007) Non-interest earning assets/tax gdp/cap -.001* -.001 .000 -.002** -.001 (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Customer &short term funding/ta -.007 .003 .004 -.000 -.004 (.005) (.005) (.006) (.005) (.005) Cust. & shrt term funding/ta x gdp/cap .000 -.000 .000 -.000 .000 (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) (.001) Overhead/ta .173*** o025*** .213*** .141*** .310*** (.022) (.019) (.019) (.018) (.019) Overhead/ta x gdp/cap .002*** .004* .004* .009*** .005*** (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) Foreign ownership dummy .004*** .003** .004*** .004*** .003*** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Foreign ownership dummy x gdp/cap -.001*** -.001*** -.001*** -.000*** -.000*** (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) Macro Indicators Gdp/cap .000 .000 .000 .000 -.011*** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.002) Growth 004 .005 .006 -.011 -.020** (.008) (.008) (.008) (.008) (.007) Inflation .021*** .026*** .025*** .020*** .003 (.006) (.006) (.006) (.006) (.005) Real interest .044*** .060*** .058*** .051*** .025*** (.007) (.007) (.007) (.007) (.006) Real interest x gdp/cap .001 -.004** -.003* -.005*** -.000 (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) Taxation Reserves ->.D76*** -.076*** -.024* -.104*** (.015) (.015) (.016) (.016) Reserves x gdp/cap .011*** .011*** .009*** .004 (.003) (.003) (.003) (.004) Tax rate .016*** .015*** .017*** .017*** (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) Tax rate x gdp/cap -.001*** -.001*** -.001*** ..001*** (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) ** and *** indicate significance levels of 10, 5 and I percent respectively. Table 4. Continued (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Deposit Insurance Deposit insurance dummy -.009*** (.003) Financial Structure Banklgdp -.024** (.010) Bank/gdp x gdp/cap .001* (.001) Mcap/gdp .016*** (.005) Mcap/gdp x gdp/cap -.002*** (.001) Mcap/bank -.013*** (.003) Mcap/bank x gdp/cap .001** (.001) No. of banks -.001 (.015) Concentration .004 (.005) Total assets ($) .003*** (.000) Legal and Institutional Indicators Contract enforcement dummy -.042*** (.007) Contract enforcmt dummy x gdp/cap .003*** (.001) Law & order index -.003*** (.001) Law & order index x gdp/cap -.000*** (.000) Corruption .009*** (.001) Corruption x gdp/cap .001*** (.000) Adj .50 .51 .50 .58 .63 N. of obs 5841 5276 5212 5054 4497 ** and *** indicate significance levels of 10, 5 and I percent respectively. Table 5. Determinants of Bank Profitability The regression is estimated using weighted least squares pooling bank level data across 80 countries for the 1988- 95 time period. Number of banks in each period is used to weight the observations. Regression also includes country and time dummy variables which are not reported. Dependent variable is the before tax profits divided by total assets. Detailed variable definitions and data sources are given in the appendix. Standard errors are given in parentheses. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Bank Characteristics Equity/ta t- .047*** .051*** .055*** .058** .015*** (.009) (.009) (.009) (.010) (.006) Equity/ta .1l x gdp/cap .002 .002*** .003*** .002*** .003*** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Loan/ta -.013*** -.024*** -.023** -.015*** -.018*** (.005) (.005) (.005) (.005) (.004) Loan/ta xgdp/cap .001*** .003*** .003*** .003*** .001*** (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) Non-interest earning assets/ta -.005 -.010 -.011 -.014 -.033*** (.010) (.010) (.010) (.010) (.007) Non-interest earning assets/tax gdp/cap -.007*** -.007*** -.007*** -.008*** .002** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Customer &short term funding/ta -.029*** -.017** -.014*** -.031*** -.051*** (.006) (.007) (.008) (.001) (.005) Cust. & shrt term funding/ta x gdp/cap .002*** -.000 -.000 .001 .002*** (.000) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.000) Overhead/ta -.023 -.006 -.004 -.024 -.114*** (.025) (.026) (.026) (.026) (.019) Overhead/ta x gdp/cap -.030*** -.049*** -.049*** -.048*** .007*** (.003) (.003) (.003) (.003) (.002) Foreign ownership dummy .005*** .006*** .006*** .006*** .006*** (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) (.001) Foreign ownership dummy x gdp/cap -.001*** -.001*** -.001*** -.001*** .000*** (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) Macro Indicators Gdp/cap .008*** .008*** .008*** .007*** .000 (.001) (.001) (.001) (.002) (.002) Growth .002 -.006 -.007 -.019 .004 (.010) (.011) (.011) (.011) (.007) Inflation .011 .015* .014* .009 .011* (.008) (.008) (.008) (.008) (.005) Real interest .023*** .029*** .029*** .023*** .026*** (.009) (.010) (.010) (.009) (.006) Real interest x gdp/cap -.000 -.001 -.001 -.000 -.003** (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) (.002) Taxation Reserves ..126*** -.129*** -.106*** -.091*** (.021) (.021) (.023) (.016) Reservesx gdp/cap .029*** .031*** .032*** .005*** (.004) (.004) (.004) (.004) Tax rate .022*** .022*** .021*** .017*** (.003) (.003) (.003) (.002) Tax rate x gdp/cap -.000 -.000** -.003** .000*** (.000) (.000) (.000) (.000) ** and *** indicate significance levels of 10, 5 and I percent respectively. Table 5. Continued (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Deposit Insurance Deposit insurance dummy -.005 (.004) Financial Structure Banklgdp -.028* (.014) Bank/gdp x gdp/cap .002* (.001) Mcap/gdp .010 (.007) Mcap/gdp x gdp/cap .000 (.001) Mcap/bank -.001 (.001) Mcap/bank x gdp/cap -.001 (.001) No. of banks .000 (.000) Concentration .010* (.007) Total assets ($) .000 (.000) Legal and Institutional Indicators Contract enforcement dummy -.022*** (.007) Contract enforcmt. dummy x gdp/cap .001*** (.001) Law & order index -.000 (.001) Law & order index x gdp/cap -.000* (.000) Corruption -.002* (.001) Corruption x gdp/cap -.000 (.000) Adj R2 .21 .27 .27 .31 .35 N. of obs 5841 5276 5212 5054 4497 *, ** and *** indicate significance levels of 10, 5 and 1 percent respectively. Figure 1: Interest and Non-interest Income: 1988-1995 12 - 10 8 6 U non-interest income U net interest margin 4 0 Industrial Middle East Asia Africa Latin Transitional Economies and North America Economies Africa Figure 2: Income Decomposition: 1988-1995 12 10 8 a net profit a tax 6 O loan loss provisi * overhead 4 2 0 Industrial Middle East Asia Africa Latin Transitional Economies and North America Economies Africa Policy Research Working Paper Series Contact Title Author Date for paper WPS1883 Intersectoral Resource Allocation and Fumihide Takeuchi February 1998 K. Labrie Its impact on Economic Development Takehiko Hagino 31001 in the Philippines WPS1884 Fiscal Aspects of Evolving David E. Wildasin February 1998 C. Bernardo Federations: issues for Policy and 31148 Research WPS`1885 Aid, Taxation, and Development: Christopher S. Adam February 1998 K. Labrie Analytical Perspectives oni Aid Stephen A. O'Connell 31001 Effectiveness in Sub-Saeharan Africa WPS1 886 Country Funds and Asymmetric Jeffrey A. Frankel February 1998 R. Martin Information Sergio L. Schmukler 39065 WPS1887 The Structure of Derivatives George Tsetsekos February 1998 P. Kokila Exchanges: Lessons from Developed Panos Varangis 33716 and Emerging Markets WPSI 888 What Do Doctors Want? Developing Kenneth M. Chomitz March 1998 T. Charvet Incentives for Doctors to Serve in Gunawan Setiadi 87431 Indonesia's Rural and Remote Areas Azrui Azwar Nusye ismail Widiyarti WPS1889 Development Strategy Reconsidered: Toru Yanagir,ara March 1998 K. Labrie Mexico, 1960-94 Yoshiaki Hisamatsu 31001 WPS1890 Market Development in the United Andrej Juris March 1998 S. Vivas Kingdom's Natura! Gas Industry 82809 WPS1891 The Housing MAarket in the Russian Ala K. Guzanova March 1998 S. Graig Federation: Privatization and its 33160 Implications for Market Development WPS1892 The Role of Non-Bank Flnancia, Dimitri Vittas March 1998 P. Sintim-Aboagye Intermediaries (with Particular 38526 Reference to Egypt) WPS1893 Reguiatory Controversies of Private Dimitri Vittas March 1998 P. Sintim-Aboagye Pension Funds 38526 WPS1894 Applying a Simple Measure of Good Jeff Huther March 1998 S. Valle Governance to the Debate on Fiscal 84493 Decentralization WPS1895 The Emergence of MParkets in the Andrej Juris Mlarch 1998 S. Vivas Natural Gas Industry 82809 WPS1896 Congestion Pricing and Network Thomas-Olivier Nasser March 1998 S. Vivas Expansion 82809 Policy Research Working Paper Series Contact Title Author Date for paper WPSI897 Development of Natural Gas and Andrej Juris March 1998 S. Vivas Pipeline Capacity Markets in the 82809 United States WPS1898 Does Membership in a Regional Faezeh Foroutan March 1998 L. Tabada Preferential Trade Arrangement Make 36896 a Country More or Less Protectionist? WPS1899 Determinants of Emerging Market Hong G. Min March 1998 E. Oh Bond Spread: Do Economic 33410 Fundamentals Matter?