Market Structure and Performance of Tunisian Banks

Abstract

The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between market structure and the performance of the Tunisian banking system over the period 1990-2009. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method was used to assess the scores of x-efficiency and scale efficiency, the hypotheses of the market power theory and those of the efficient structure theory were tested. Our Results have shown that x-efficiency has had a positive and significant effect on the performance of the Tunisian commercial banks as well as the hypothesis of x-efficiency.      Keywords: Bank performance; Market structure; X-efficiency; DEA; Tunisian banks. JEL Classifications: G21; G28; L1