The impacts of risk and competition on bank profitability in China

Several rounds of banking reforms in China have aimed to increase the competitive condition and further enhance stability in the Chinese banking sector, while the joint effects of competition and risk-taking behaviour on the profitability in the banking sector have not been studied well enough so far in the literature. The current study contributes to the empirical literature by testing the impacts of risk and competition on profitability in the Chinese banking industry (state-owned, joint-stock and city commercial banks) over the period 2003-2011 under a one-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) system estimator. The results do not show any robust finding with regards to the impacts of competition and risk on bank profitability, while it is found that Chinese bank profitability is affected by taxation, overhead cost, labour productivity and inflation. The study provides policy implications to the Chinese banking industry and different ownership types of Chinese commercial banks.