Evaluation of the degree of competition and productive efficiency: the case of the Lebanese banking industry.

Summary The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of deregulation and financial reform on the competitive structure of the Lebanese banking market and on the reproductive efficiency of banks operating in Lebanon. This work is conducted by considering four approaches: 1) the use of industrial economics to analyze the competitive structure of the Lebanese market. 2) the use of production microeconomics for the specification of a cost function. 3) the use of the theory of productive efficiency and finally 4) the use of estimation techniques on panel data. The results obtained show on the one hand an intensification of competition and on the other hand an improvement of the productive efficiency of banks operating in Lebanon over the period 1992-2000.