Impact of Globalization on Banks Performance and Standard of Living in GCC Countries: Macro Evidence Based on GMM Approach

Abstract

This research intends to present empirical evidence on the impact of globalization on the banking sector's performance and the standard of living in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The present study accounts for the several characteristics of globalization. The authors have utilized data of commercial banks in the Gulf Countries (GC) from 1996 and 2017. The return on assets and equity are used to assess the performance of the banks by using the technique of Generalized Method of Moments. It is found that bank profitability is negatively impacted by greater economic, social, and political globalization. However, globalization has a positive impact on GDP per capita in GCC nations, indicating that globalization is beneficial from a living standard point of view. The current research has used population and government effectiveness as control variables, and the findings show that growing population benefits bank’s returns while government effectiveness has no influence on banking performance.