Suchergebnisse

This book shows three specific characteristics: First, the focus of many of the investigations is on the analysis of micro data. As the issue of competitiveness is closely linked to the performance, the costs, and the efficiency of the production of financial services by individual banking firms, this extention of research was a natural step to take. Second, since "attractiveness" was identified as the core notion when discussing the competitiveness of international financial centres, a more detailed explanation of the presence of foreign financial institutions in Switzerland was sought. Third, in many ways results pointed to the importance of the off-balance sheet business when explaining the bank's performance. Hence, the effects of foreign competition on the Swiss stock markets were incorporated into the research. The problems encountered and the solutions found in this work will almost certainly prove stimulationfor those concentrating their efforts on the study of other international financial centres

This study is devoted to competitiveness in banking. Con- ceptual, measurement, and interpretational issues are dis- cussed innovatively and indetail by a number of leading international experts in the field. Theoretical contributions from the area of international trade in services and from industrial economics are paired with econometric work on international cross-section and time-series data. Papers especially focus on banking in Switzerland. This should not reduce the interest of the publication to an international readership since Switzerland is one of the leading financial centres in the world. In addition, Swiss banking iscompared with banking in the most important other countries in a systematic way. Important results are of a comparative nature and, therefore, of international relevance. The main benefit to the reader will be his increased awareness of the complexity of the issue of competitiveness, combined with some thought provoking empirical results