Sources of Productivity Growth, Effective Factors and Competition in the Deposits Market of Commercial Banks in Iran

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the changes in the productivity of commercial banks in Iran and to examine the factors affecting it. Malmquist index and data envelopment analysis were used to measure changes in the productivity, and to evaluate the factors affecting productivity, the multivariate regression was utilized. The research time-period consisted of an 8-year period ending in 2018. The sample consists of 10 operating banks in the banking industry of Tehran Stock Exchange. The Research findings show that indicate that in total (average of the periods under study) investigated units experienced a growth in productivity and this growth was due to their technical efficiency growth. On the other hand the findings, also, indicate a significant effect of size, the ratio of cost to income and competition in the market of bank deposits on the productivity. And these observed relationships were direct, indirect and direct respectively.