Competition and Efficiency in the Regional Banking Industry: Empirical Implications of the Quiet-Life Hypothesis

Based on the generalized user-revenue model constructed by Homma (2009, 2012, 2018), this paper clarifies the empirical implications of the quiet-life hypothesis in the Japanese regional banking industry. The quiet-life hypothesis is accepted here but the efficient structure hypothesis is not. Moreover, the extended generalized-Lerner index (EGLI) on the cost frontier increases with the Herfindahl index in the previous period if and only if the quiet-life hypothesis is accepted, so it is possible to justify anti-monopoly and anti-concentration policies using support for the quiet-life hypothesis. Furthermore, intertemporal regular linkages (i.e., cyclical linkages) exist because the average loans are not large and only the quiet-life hypothesis is accepted. However, the linkage of the single-period EGLIs of the long-term loans on the cost frontier leads to convergence and is fixed at the very large values in the initial periods; thus, the linkage is judged to be undesirable to Japanese regional banks, similar to the linkages of single-period dynamic cost efficiencies and single-period optimal financial goods.