Assessing the long-term impact of reforms and privatisation on the banking industry of Pakistan

Abstract

This study examines the long-term impact of privatisation and broader reforms of the banking industry in Pakistan over a quarter of a century. We conclude that following the reforms and changes of ownership, as expected, banking firms made an adjustment to their input usage by switching from labour saving to labour using after the reforms, but vice versa for purchased funds. Simple descriptive statistics of the productivity estimates reveal that banking firms did not experience any improvement in productivity (medium-sized and private firms in particular). Operating nationwide has a clear advantage in terms of productivity growth compared, with operating only in urban centres with a limited number of branches. More importantly, when the productivity estimates are regressed on a number of explanatory variables to control for bank-specific factors and the economic, financial, industrial and political environment, we conclude that the reforms and changes of ownership have indeed made privatised banking firms in particular more productive.