FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION AND EFFICIENCY IN TUNISIAN BANKING INDUSTRY: DEA TEST

Abstract

IMF policies have been widely criticized in the aftermath of the Asian crisis. Key critics questioned the appropriateness and the sequencing of financial liberalization programs which, along with insufficient monitoring and inadequate prudential regulations, left the financial sectors of the affected countries highly leveraged and exposed. This paper examines the impacts of similar reforms on the efficiency of the banking system in Tunisia, a country whose economy has been reshaped by the IMF/World Bank prescribed economic adjustment plans since 1987. Using various DEA models and panel data covering the period 1992–1997, we evaluate the individual effects of each component of the reforms on the banking industry overall. Meanwhile, we compare the effects on banks because of the different ownership structures over time. We also pay particular attention to specific factors that have kept the financial sector in Tunisia relatively stable in the midst of the global market turmoil caused by the Asian crisis.