| Article ID: | iaor201522797 |
| Volume: | 8 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page Number: | 77 |
| End Page Number: | 81 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 1985 |
| Journal: | Journal of Financial Research |
| Authors: | Bedingfield James P, Reckers Philip M J, Stagliano A J |
| Keywords: | finance & banking, statistics: distributions |
Much research in banking assumes that the data are normally distributed. There has been little empirical confirmation of this assumption. In this paper, the normality assumption is subjected to an extensive test using data for virtually all U.S. commercial banks for several years. The statistical characteristics of 11 common financial ratios are investigated. The findings reject any broad assumption of population normality.