scholarly journals Economies of Scale and Economies of Diversification in Insurance Business: Some Elements of Valuation

1991 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-338
Author(s):  
Robert Teyssier
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Insurance Business ◽  
Economies Of Diversification

Effective Customer Support System of Life Insurance Companies

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Srivastava ◽  
Dr. Preeti Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Customer Experience ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Insurance Business ◽  
Strategic Imperative

Increased competition, new technologies and the shift in power from the provider to the customer have produced unrelenting pressure on life insurance business. The market forces point to one overwhelming strategic imperative: customer-focused strategy. Customers are willing to build long-term relationships based on trust and mutual respect with firms that provide a differentiated and personalized service offering. Over the past few years, life insurance industry responded to intensified competition and high customer attrition by entering each other’s markets to capture greater “wallet share” and ostensibly lower their economies of scale. The service delivery process is influenced by quality of personnel, information technology, internal processes, human resource practices, and even an institution’s own change orientation. Now a day’s customers are demanding seamless, multi-channel sales and service experiences. Simultaneously, other players are looking for opportunities to invade this space or to redefine it through disruptive innovation. The result is forcing life insurance companies to examine a more balanced, integrated approach to the customer experience and growth. This research, we analyze the need, preference and satisfaction of customers in life insurance business and provide perspective on how to improve the customer experience.

Evaluating complementary synergies in integrated crop-livestock systems in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-85
Author(s):  
Bright O. Asante ◽  
Renato A. Villano ◽  
George E. Battese
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Farm Productivity ◽  
Livestock Systems ◽  
Economies Of Diversification

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of crop-livestock diversification among smallholders in the forest-savannah agroecological zone of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a stochastic input distance function to investigate the evidence of economies of diversification and its effect on determining diversification decisions of smallholders in Ghana. Furthermore, this study also explores evidence of scale economies in integrated crop-livestock systems among smallholder farmers. Findings The empirical results show that economies of diversification are significant in determining diversification decisions of smallholders. The economies of scale are evident in integrated crop-livestock systems in Ghana, suggesting that opportunities exist to expand crop-livestock outputs without employing additional inputs or improved production technologies. Crop-livestock diversification is a desirable strategy for improving overall farm productivity among smallholders in Ghana. Economies of diversification were found to be significant among the output combinations, maize with other crops and other crops with livestock, in integrated crop-livestock production systems. Research limitations/implications This study is based on a cross-sectional data set. Hence, the findings may be subject to some limitations; however, the authors have sought to minimise such limitations. Practical implications The results imply that crop-livestock diversification is a desirable strategy for improving overall farm productivity. Therefore, the findings are useful for policymakers to design appropriate strategies for enhancing the production of specific output combinations in crop-livestock diversification systems among smallholders in Ghana. Specifically, such policies should promote the production and integration of crops such as legumes with other crops, and livestock with other crops in diversified farming systems to enhance overall farm productivity. This will reduce food insecurity and poverty among rural farm households and the entire rural population. Originality/value These results indicate that to improve crop-livestock productivity through diversification, and reduce the effect of climate variability, it is imperative to provide the enabling environment that will facilitate and encourage production of these output combinations among smallholders in Ghana. The empirical results enhance the literature by providing empirical evidence of the complementary synergies and economies of diversification in integrated farming systems and, hence, make recommendations for improving these farming systems. Peer review The peer review history for this paper is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2019-0274.

Noordin Sopite, Chew Lay See and Lim Siang Jin (eds.). ASI:.""AN at the OOSSToads: Obstacles, Options and Opportunities in Economic Cooperatjon. Malaysia: Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) 1987.577 pp.Price: (hardbound edition) USS 25.

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-222
Author(s):  
Khwaja Sarmad
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Preferential Trading Arrangements

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established In 1967 as a loosely structured inter-governmental organization, which provided a framework for discussing problems that required a regional solution. For a long time, the reduction of regional political tensions remained the main concern of ASEAN. Serious efforts towards promoting intra-regional co-operation began in 1976 with emphasis on trade liberalization and industrial co-operation. But apart from a few cases, involving the regional economies and collective external bargaining, the record of economic co-operation has been poor, because of different levels of economic development of the member countries, mutually competitive exports.. inward• looking industrial policies and heavy dependence on the industrialized countries for investment, technology and trade. So far, there have been only three intra-ASEAN agreements to promote market sharing and a pooling of resources: the preferential trade arrangements, the industrial complementation agreement, designed to develop links in certain industries to achieve greater economies of scale, and the industrial joint venture agreement, which provides preferential treatment for products of joint ventures involving the companies of at least two ASEAN member countries. However the joint venture scheme has had only limited success because of delays in implementation, while the scope of the preferential trading arrangements has been limited by the consensus approach in solving outstanding issues and by the concern of higher-tariff member countries to protect domestic production and employment. As a result, tariffs have been reduced only on intra-regional trade of selected non-sensitive items. Most of the items covered in the preferential trade agreements have low trade content and minimal trade potential. The arrangements have also been difficult to manage because of problems of administering the rules of origin.

The effect of hospital characteristics on pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis fusion cost

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 713-721
Author(s):  
Jonathan Dallas ◽  
Chevis N. Shannon ◽  
Christopher M. Bonfield
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Fusion ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Hospital Costs ◽  
Neuromuscular Scoliosis ◽  
Teaching Hospitals ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Cost Information ◽  
Nonprofit Hospitals ◽  
Disease Etiology ◽  
Hospital Characteristics

OBJECTIVESpinal fusion is used in the treatment of pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis (NMS) to improve spine alignment and delay disease progression. However, patients with NMS are often medically complex and require a higher level of care than those with other types of scoliosis, leading to higher treatment costs. The purpose of this study was to 1) characterize the cost of pediatric NMS fusion in the US and 2) determine hospital characteristics associated with changes in overall cost.METHODSPatients were identified from the National Inpatient Sample (2012 to the first 3 quarters of 2015). Inclusion criteria selected for patients with NMS, spinal fusion of at least 4 vertebral levels, and elective hospitalization. Patients with no cost information were excluded. Sociodemographics, treating hospital characteristics, disease etiology/severity, comorbidities, length of stay, and hospital costs were collected. Univariable analysis and multivariable gamma log-link regression were used to determine hospital characteristics associated with changes in cost.RESULTSA total of 1780 weighted patients met inclusion criteria. The median cost was $68,815. Following multivariable regression, both small (+$11,580, p < 0.001) and medium (+$6329, p < 0.001) hospitals had higher costs than large hospitals. Rural hospitals had higher costs than urban teaching hospitals (+$32,438, p < 0.001). Nonprofit hospitals were more expensive than both government (–$4518, p = 0.030) and investor-owned (–$10,240, p = 0.001) hospitals. There was significant variability by US census division; compared with the South Atlantic, all other divisions except for the Middle Atlantic had significantly higher costs, most notably the West North Central (+$15,203, p < 0.001) and the Pacific (+$22,235, p < 0.001). Hospital fusion volume was not associated with total cost.CONCLUSIONSA number of hospital factors were associated with changes in fusion cost. Larger hospitals may be able to achieve decreased costs due to economies of scale. Regional differences could reflect uncontrolled-for variability in underlying patient populations or systems-level and policy differences. Overall, this analysis identified multiple systemic patterns that could be targets of further cost-related interventions.

Estimacion de Economias de Escala en el Mercado de Tarjetas de Pago

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-92
Keyword(s):  
Cost Function ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Payment Methods ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Main Banks ◽  
Debit Cards

During the last years, the growth of transactions made through credit and debit cards has presented quite signif- icant increases both in number and in amounts. This paper studies the existence of economies of scale in the pro- cessing of such transactions, a situation that would exist if it were compatible with the existence of a single firm destined to the processing of said operations. The existence of a single firm for processing is not in itself a problem per se, which does generate problems for the competition is the structure of said firm, because for the period of time analyzed, its shareholder composition was composed of The main banks that issue these cards, but also have given them the function of being the acquirer of the merchants for these payment methods, which generates a vertically inte- grated structure, which creates competition problems in the market. After estimating the model indirectly from a cost function, this work determines the existence of economies of scale in the industry.

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