Motivation : This project aims at providing new evidence on the evolution of the unit cost of financial intermediation in Europe. Because the output of financial intermediation cannot be approximated with accounting standards, this project proposes an approximation through aggregate statistics.
Project : In a first step, this project will consist in collecting macroeconomic data on financial activities for every European country, going back in time at least to 1945 – and before 1914 for some countries. This data will then be used to approximate the output and the cost of financial intermediation using a theoretical model of financial intermediation.
Funding : The project is entirely funded by Finance Watch an NGO located in Brussels.
IPP researchers associated to this project : Guillaume Bazot
Publications
- March 2015 – IPP Report n°8: “Measuring and Explaining the Evolution of Financial Efficiency“
- June 2014 – IPP Policy Brief n°10: “Has finance become to expensive? An estimation of the unit cost of financial intermediation in Europe, 1951-2007“
- Working Paper (PSE 2014-17): “Financial Consumption and the Cost of Finance: Measuring Financial Efficiency in Europe (1950-2007)“
- Data used in the article and the Policy Brief n°10: base in Excel format and appendix in pdf
- Download the press release (in French)
Press articles
- Investors Chronicle, 22 sept. 2016: “How technology fails“
- The Economist, 21st June 2014: “Counting the cost of finance”
- AGEFI, June 2014: ““Le coût de l’intermédiation financière a augmenté de 35 % en 40 ans“
Ce message est également disponible en : 
French