Abstract: Capital regulation plays an extremely important role in reducing bank risk and improving long-term bank profitability.This paper selects the panel data of 165 Chinese commercial banks from 2013 to 2019 to conduct an empirical analysis of capital regulation,commercial bank risk taking and efficiency.The results show that the changes in cost efficiency of commercial banks are relatively flat over the years,profit efficiency fluctuates more,and the profit creation ability of Chinese commercial banks is generally lower than the cost control ability.Capital regulation required by the minimum capital adequacy ratio can induce well-capitalized commercial banks to effectively increase their capital levels,reduce risk-taking and promote their sound operation,but it is not effective for some of the small banks that are undercapitalized in the short term.A moderate increase in risk-taking by commercial banks is conducive to cost efficiency and profit efficiency,which in turn makes banks willing to further enhance risk-taking.Under capital regulation,there is an interaction mechanism between risk-taking and efficiency of commercial banks.Bank size,return on assets and GDP growth rate all have significant effects on risk-taking level and efficiency of commercial banks.

Key words: capital regulation, risk taking, bank efficiency