This study assesses the impact on competitiveness of banking takeovers in Australia, to inform regulators and contribute to the mergers and acquisitions body of international evidence. New industrial organisation theories and empirical evidence suggest that more concentration may or may not lead to decreased competition. We assess competitiveness with the Bresnahan–Lau conduct coefficient. We find that the 2008 takeover of St. George had no significant effect, whereas that of BankWest in 2012 attracted a marginally small deadweight efficiency loss. Overall, the sector is found to be fairly competitive, a result that we associate with intense price competition under low switching costs.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚银行业的集中度和竞争：Bresnahan-Lau结构-行为-绩效评估*

这项研究评估了澳大利亚银行业收购对竞争力的影响，以向监管机构提供信息并为并购机构提供国际证据。新的产业组织理论和经验证据表明，更多的集中可能会或可能不会导致竞争减少。我们用Bresnahan-Lau行为系数评估竞争力。我们发现，2008年对圣乔治的收购没有重大影响，而2012年对BankWest的收购仅带来了很小的载重量效率损失。总体而言，我们发现该行业具有相当的竞争力，因此我们在较低的转换成本下与激烈的价格竞争相关。