Market Concentration and Income Diversification: Do They Always Promote the Financial Stability of Banking Industry?

This paper analyzes the effects of market concentration and income diversification on the financial stability of the world banking system. It uses the GMM estimator proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) to study 206 countries between 1994 and 2015. The results show that market concentration and income diversification have a positive and nonlinear effect on financial stability; and a negative and nonlinear effect on bank risk. The nonlinearity shape suggests that the effects are reversed when the banking industry has a higher market concentration and income diversification. In these cases, lower levels of stability and higher risks would characterize the banking industry. Nonlinearity establishes threshold values that are relevant for the empirical discussion oriented to an optimal design of financial policies and banking strategies.