Publication

Abstract : Introduction There is a large literature dealing with the measurement of banking efficiency and productivity in the western economies. The banking studies relating to the Middle East economies are few. Several factors might be responsible for this. First, the financial system of many Middle East countries is highly regulated and outdated. Second, the financial sector is dominated by the public sector. Thirdly, the required data for banks are not available for many Middle East economies. However, during the last one and a half decades, many of these economies have moved towards liberalising their financial system. This has encouraged researchers to undertake studies of banking efficiency and productivity in some of the countries, see, for example, Hassan et al. (2004) and Al-Muharrami (2007).