Research Papers

Economic data and statistics are a key element for successful economic analysis and economic policy formulation, by both the public and the private sector. Actually, economic data and statistics fulfill all the requirements to be considered a public good. Unfortunately, the state of economic data and statistics in Albania is not very satisfactory at the moment. Recognizing the importance of the economic data and statistics, the Bank of Albania has taken concrete steps in the improvement of the construction, reliability, availability and dissemination of such data.

Period 2005-2007

Period 2001-2004

Period 1998-2000

This paper applies the Panzar-Rosse methodology to measure the competition degree in the Albanian banking system. The results suggest that Albanian banks operate in monopolistic competition conditions

The author proposes an alternative theory to the traditional theory of financial intermediation derived from the credit rationing literature, which is more consistent with the case of financial intermediation in transition economies. One of the key insights gained from our theoretical analysis is that the synchronisation of different reforms, especially institutional reforms, is critical for a faster development of financial intermediation in transition economies.

The proliferation of many new, high-risk banks, as a result of the liberal bank entry policy at the beginning of transition, increased the risk of systemic failures. Even in those CE and SEE countries that relied more on safer foreign competition there have been cases of foreign banks making large losses (e.g. in Hungary) or cases of fraud (e.g. in Poland) (Bonin, et al. 1998). With the privatisation of SOBs the government's implicit insurance of their deposits ceases too, and the possibility of deposit and bank runs became more real. Thus, the regulation and supervision of banks which could reduce the systemic risk in transition became of paramount importance. A systemic failure would discredit all previous banking reforms and it may be very difficult for the banking sector to restore savers and foreign investors confidence.