TY - BOOK ID - 84543000 TI - What Drives the Performance of Selected MENA Banks? A Meta-Frontier Analysis. PY - 2011 SN - 1462356583 1462307140 1283563975 9786613876423 1455217840 PB - Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, DB - UniCat KW - Banks and banking KW - Agricultural banks KW - Banking KW - Banking industry KW - Commercial banks KW - Depository institutions KW - Finance KW - Financial institutions KW - Money KW - Banks and Banking KW - Finance: General KW - Industries: Financial Services KW - Banks KW - Depository Institutions KW - Micro Finance Institutions KW - Mortgages KW - General Financial Markets: General (includes Measurement and Data) KW - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy KW - Financial Institutions and Services: General KW - Stock markets KW - Financial sector development KW - Financial sector KW - Stock exchanges KW - Financial services industry KW - Tunisia UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:84543000 AB - This study examines the effect of financial-sector reform on bank performance in selected Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the period 1994 -2008. We evaluate bank efficiency in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and Tunisia by means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and we employ a meta-frontier approach to calculate efficiency scores in a cross-country setting. We then employ a second-stage regression to investigate the impact of institutional, financial, and bank specific variables on bank efficiency. Overall, the analysis shows that, despite similarities in the process of financial reforms undertaken in the five MENA countries, the observed efficiency levels of banks vary substantially across markets, with Morocco consistently outperforming the rest of the region.Differences in technology seem to be crucial in explaining efficiency differences. To foster banking sector performance, policies should be aimed at giving banks incentives to improve their risk management and portfolio management techniques. Improvements in the legal system and in the regulatory and supervisory bodies would also help to reduce inefficiency. ER -