The Structure of the Tunisian Banking Market: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This survey analyses the structure of the Tunisian banking market for the 1996–2013 period. We propose a model based on the Panzar-Rosse approach to determine the degree of competitiveness.We find that in Tunisia, the banking market is oligopolistic during all the long and short periods and the increase of the number of commercial banks in the 2000s did not change the market structure. These new banks are small and they need time to reduce the degree of bank concentration and to influence the conditions of banking activities: Over the period 1996-2007 and the 2008-2013 period, the change of banking indicators was very slow.

Keywords: Panzar-Rosse model, markets structure, deposit banks; Tunisian bank

JEL Classification: D40 L10 L13