This study advances an entry/exit model to analyse the scale efficiency of UK
building societies. We find that there are considerable divergences across building
societies in levels of scale efficiency and also in technological change during the sample
period 1992-1997. The paper also finds that scale economies and technological change
estimates are dependent on whether the econometrician balances a panel data set or
utilises the entry/exit model based on Dionne et al’s (1998) specification. In general,
scale economies in UK building societies are found to be more significant and more
pervasive than in previous studies
