A Study of the competitiveness of Iran's banking system

In this article the panzar and rosse approach is employed to assess the level of competition in the iranian banking system during 1997-2010. panel data is used for all the 18 banks (private and public) that have been commercially active for at least the last four years. the results show that during the period of the study the banking system has been operating under a monopolistic competition system. it is also shown that allowing competition among private banks has improved the competitive environment. finally,the results indicate that with private banks entering the market,competition in the entire banking system has risen.