Research Discussion Papers, Bank of Finland
No 12/2002:
Banking sector output and labour productivity in six European countries
Leena Mörttinen
Abstract: This paper contributes to the discussion on the
measurement of banking sector output. It is also a prelude to discussion on
possible causes of productivity change in banking. We demonstrate how the
banking sector’s service production can be measured using aggregate
financial statement and payment transactions data. We compute banking
sector labour productivity Tornqvist indices for six countries (Finland,
Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy) over a period varying
from 11 to 20 years. According to the results, Finnish banking sector
productivity has improved via a substantial reduction size of labour force,
whereas output growth has been rather modest. Although in most of the other
countries the restructuring process has been less intense, most of the
sectors studied have improved in terms of overall output and labour
productivity, especially since the mid-1990s.
Keywords: banks; service production; productivity; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: D24; G21; (follow links to similar papers)
27 pages, June 17, 2002
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