MARKET STRUCTURE AND COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS OF BANKING INDUSTRY IN KSA: THE PANZAR-ROSSE APPROACH

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical assessment of the market structure and the competitive conditions of the Saudi Arabian banking sector. We applied the Panzar-Rosse H-statistic on the data collected from a panel of 12 Saudi banks for the period 1999-2007. These banks were classified as most significant by the Central Batik (SAMA). Equilibrium tests and the competitive conditions tests were applied oil the data. From the pooled regression overall period we found that banking sector in Saudi At-tibia in 1999-2007 was a conjectural variation short-run oligopoly. Our results reject that there is a perfect competition or natural monopoly in a perfectly contestable market or a monopolistic competition.