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The minimum cost output configuration for a firm may change as the result of a variety of factors, including changes in market structure. In this paper we test this structural change hypothesis with savings and loan data. We find support for the hypothesis that separable, constant returns to scale production functions characterize the average savings and loan in our sample in 1983. This is in contrast to the cost complementarities found in 1978. We argue that this result may be the result of regulatory changes that allowed savings and loans to alter their production mix to fully capture the benefits of joint production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the papers presented at the sixth annual conference on financial services in Washington, D.C. in October 2002. Information on why stock prices of multiproduct firms sell at discount relative to firms with more product or service lines; Views of speaker Arnoud Boot on the condition of the financial services industry in the U.S. and Europe; Challenge for regulators in emerging financial service markets; Solutions to problems encountered with the use of the silo approach to industry regulation.