Determinants of profitability of life and non-life insurance companies: evidence from Ecuador

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 831-872
Author(s):  
Segundo Camino-Mogro ◽  
Natalia Bermúdez-Barrezueta
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
The Interest Rate ◽  
First Time

Purpose The purpose of this paper is is to identify the main determinants of insurance profitability on life and non-life segments to obtain which variables affect in each market of the Ecuadorian insurance sector. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a large panel data set with financial information from 2001 to 2017 and estimate the determinants through a panel corrected standard errors regression. Findings The authors found that net premiums, technical reserves, capital ratio and score efficiency are micro-determinants in the life insurance sector, whereas in the non-life sector, the micro-determinants include also claim level and liquidity ratio; moreover, the authors found that HHI is a determinant of profitability only in the life insurance. Among the macro determinants set, the authors found that the interest rate has also a significant impact both in the life and non-life insurance. Originality/value The authors analyze a dollarized emerging country, which is the first time in this kind of studies. The authors also include the structure-conduct-performance and relative market power paradigm as well as the ES hypothesis, calculated through the data envelopment analysis, as determinants of insurance profitability. Finally, this is the first research to examine the determinants of profitability in Latin American and Caribbean insurers.

Revenue efficiency evaluation of life insurance companies in India: identification of leaders and laggards

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aparna Bhatia ◽  
Megha Mahendru
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Efficiency Performance ◽  
Revenue Efficiency ◽  
Indian Insurance

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to evaluate revenue efficiency performance of life insurance companies in India. The study also compares if private or public insurance sector is more “revenue efficient”. Furthermore, the study determines the nature of return to scale (RTS) and identifies the leaders and laggards amongst insurance companies operating in India.Design/methodology/approachRevenue efficiency is calculated by employing data envelopment analysis – a non-parametric approach, on a data set of 24 insurance companies over the period 2013–2014 to 2017–2018.FindingsThe empirical results suggest that life insurance companies in India could generate only 34.4% of revenue, which is very less than what these are expected to generate from the same inputs. Majority of life insurance companies operating in India are operating at decreasing return to scale (DRS). There is a reduction in leaders and the highest proportion of companies is falling in the category of laggards.Originality/valueAs per the best knowledge of researchers, no empirical work has been carried out with respect to measuring the revenue efficiency of Indian insurance companies. The current study appropriately fills the gap by not only calculating the revenue efficiency scores of insurance companies in India but also provides insights into the causes of revenue inefficiencies. It also gives implications for efficient and effective management of insurance companies.

Productivity of the Indian non-life insurance sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-650
Author(s):  
Ashiq Mohd Ilyas ◽  
S. Rajasekaran
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Scale Efficiency ◽  
Index Number ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Index Number Theory ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Observation Period

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the performance of the Indian non-life (general) insurance sector in terms of total factor productivity (TFP) over the period 2005–2016. Design/methodology/approach This study utilises Färe‒Primont index (FPI) to access the change in TFP and its components: technical change, technical efficiency and mix and scale efficiency over the observation period. Moreover, it employs the Mann–Whitney U-test to scrutinise the difference between the public and the private insurers in terms of growth in productivity. Findings The results reveal that the insurance sector possesses a very low level of TFP. Also, the results divulge an improvement of 11.98 per cent in TFP of the insurance sector at an annual average rate of 12.41 per cent over the observation period. The growth in productivity is mainly attributable to the improvement of 10.81 per cent in the scale‒mix efficiency. The progress in scale‒mix efficiency is mainly the result of improvements in residual scale and residual mix efficiency. The results also show that the privately owned insurers have experienced a high productivity growth rate than the state-owned insurers. Practical implications The results hold practical implications for the regulators, policymakers and decision makers of the Indian non-life insurance companies. Originality/value This study is the first of its kind to use FPI, which satisfies all economically relevant axioms and tests defined by the index number theory to comprehensively access the change in TFP of the Indian non-life insurance sector.

How to derive optimal guarantee levels in participating life insurance contracts

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 445-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Braun ◽  
Marius Fischer ◽  
Hato Schmeiser
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Asset Allocation ◽  
Equity Capital ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Contract Duration ◽  
The Interest Rate

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show how an insurance company can maximize the policyholder’s utility by setting the level of the interest rate guarantee in line with his preferences. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop a general model of life insurance, taking stochastic interest rates, early default and regular premium payments into account. Furthermore, the authors assume that equity holders must receive risk-adequate returns on their initial equity contribution and that the insurance company has to maintain a solvency restriction. Findings The findings show that the optimal level for the interest rate guarantee is in general far below the maximum value typically set by the supervisory authorities and insurance companies. Originality/value The authors conclude that the approach of deviating from the maximum interest rate guarantee level given by the regulatory requirements can create additional value for the rational policyholder. In contrast to Schmeiser and Wagner (2014), the second finding shows that the interest rate guarantee embedded in a life insurance product becomes less attractive compared to a pure investment in the underlying asset portfolio to the policyholder when the guarantee level is lowered too far or the contract duration is short. They also refute Schmeiser and Wagner (2014) by showing that the equity capital required by the insurance company increases with the level of the guarantee, even if the insurer is flexible with respect to its asset allocation. The last finding is that a policyholder with higher risk aversion does not generally prefer a higher guarantee level.

Indian Life Insurance Market and Corporate Performances: A Study of Selected Firms

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Chakraborty ◽  
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Market Share ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Market Concentration ◽  
Insurance Market ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Life Insurance Company ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Life Insurers ◽  
Company Limited

In the pre-reform era, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) dominated the Indian life insurance market with a market share close to 100 percent. But the situation drastically changed since the enactment of the IRDA Act in 1999. At the end of the FY 2012-13, the market share of LICI stood at around 73 percent with the number of players having risen to 24 in the countrys life insurance sector. One of the reasons for such a decline in the market share of LICI during the post-reform period could be attributed to the increasing competition prevailing in the countrys life insurance sector. At the same time, the liberalization of the life insurance sector for private participation has eventually raised issues about ensuring sound financial performance and solvency of the life insurance companies besides protection of the interest of policyholders. The present study is an attempt to evaluate and compare the financial performances, solvency, and the market concentration of the four leading life insurers in India namely the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (ICICI PruLife), HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Limited (HDFC Standard), and SBI Life Insurance Company Limited (SBI Life), over a span of five successive FYs 2008-09 to 2012-13. In this regard, the CARAMELS model has been used to evaluate the performances of the selected life insurers, based on the Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) as published by IMF. In addition to this, the Solvency and the Market Concentration Analyses were also presented for the selected life insurers for the given period. The present study revealed the preexisting dominance of LICI even after 15 years since the privatization of the countrys life insurance sector.

The influence of Education, Occupation and Income on Perceived Customer Value

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Sharma ◽  
Bodh Raj Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Customer Value ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Quota Sampling ◽  
Indian Insurance ◽  
Perceived Customer Value

The aim of this paper is to assess empirically perceptual gap among the customers having different educational qualification, occupation and income regarding customer value in Indian insurance sector. It is a fact that insurance sector has been growing tremendously despite a lot of competition in the marketplace. The study is based upon the primary data obtained from customers of four life insurance companies belonging to various districts of J&K through quota sampling. A questionnaire was framed containing items of demographics and statements measuring customer value based upon seven point Likert scale. The findings indicate that the demographic variables viz., qualification, occupation and monthly income, there is no significant difference regarding perceived customer value among the life insurance players.

Evolution of financial inclusion in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-276
Author(s):  
Lisana B. Martinez ◽  
Valeria Scherger ◽  
M. Belén Guercio ◽  
Sofía Orazi
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Credit Cards ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
Binary Probit ◽  
Positive Evolution ◽  
Latin American Countries

PurposeThis paper analyses the evolution of the financial inclusion and its main determinants in seven Latin American countries.Design/methodology/approachThe database used is the Global Findex from the World Bank for the latest data released that includes the years 2011 and 2014. The variables used are formal financial accounts, formal savings and formal credit as proxies of financial inclusion for the years of study. Moreover, the use of debit and credit cards is considered. The methodologies applied are the mean difference tests, in order to contrast the hypotheses of the inclusion evolution and binary probit regressions models.FindingsThe results of the analysis show that there is a positive evolution in the use of financial instruments in the countries of the sample, especially in the use of formal accounts. On the other hand, considering the characteristics of the individuals, age, level of education and income positively affect their financial inclusion.Originality/valueThere are no similar works for the region of study that allow us to evaluate the evolution of financial inclusion considering the variables selected in the literature. It is possible to clearly fulfil the proposed objective, highlighting the importance of implementing financial inclusion policies in view of the low percentage of use of the instruments in the analyzed countries.

Decision fusion-based approach for content-based image classification

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudeep Thepade ◽  
Rik Das ◽  
Saurav Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Feature Extraction ◽  
Image Classification ◽  
Image Recognition ◽  
Extraction Techniques ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Fusion ◽  
Knn Classifier ◽  
Query Classification ◽  
First Time

Purpose Current practices in data classification and retrieval have experienced a surge in the use of multimedia content. Identification of desired information from the huge image databases has been facing increased complexities for designing an efficient feature extraction process. Conventional approaches of image classification with text-based image annotation have faced assorted limitations due to erroneous interpretation of vocabulary and huge time consumption involved due to manual annotation. Content-based image recognition has emerged as an alternative to combat the aforesaid limitations. However, exploring rich feature content in an image with a single technique has lesser probability of extract meaningful signatures compared to multi-technique feature extraction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of enhanced content-based image recognition by fusion of classification decision obtained using diverse feature extraction techniques. Design/methodology/approach Three novel techniques of feature extraction have been introduced in this paper and have been tested with four different classifiers individually. The four classifiers used for performance testing were K nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier, RIDOR classifier, artificial neural network classifier and support vector machine classifier. Thereafter, classification decisions obtained using KNN classifier for different feature extraction techniques have been integrated by Z-score normalization and feature scaling to create fusion-based framework of image recognition. It has been followed by the introduction of a fusion-based retrieval model to validate the retrieval performance with classified query. Earlier works on content-based image identification have adopted fusion-based approach. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, fusion-based query classification has been addressed for the first time as a precursor of retrieval in this work. Findings The proposed fusion techniques have successfully outclassed the state-of-the-art techniques in classification and retrieval performances. Four public data sets, namely, Wang data set, Oliva and Torralba (OT-scene) data set, Corel data set and Caltech data set comprising of 22,615 images on the whole are used for the evaluation purpose. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, fusion-based query classification has been addressed for the first time as a precursor of retrieval in this work. The novel idea of exploring rich image features by fusion of multiple feature extraction techniques has also encouraged further research on dimensionality reduction of feature vectors for enhanced classification results.

scholarly journals Impact of premium reserve on life insurance investments in the Western Balkans

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-376
Author(s):  
Jelena Tomašević ◽  
Milijana Novović-Burić ◽  
Ljiljana Kašćelan ◽  
Vladimir Kašćelan
Keyword(s):  
Financial Market ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Correlation And Regression Analysis ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
The Impact

The growing importance of life insurance in the world imposes a greater need for research in this area, particularly in the Western Balkans where the trend of growth has been closely accompanied by life insurance for the past two decades. Taking into consideration that life insurance companies are significant participants in the financial market, this research paper examines the impact of the premium reserve on the volume of financial investments of life insurance companies in Western Balkan countries, based on aggregate data on country level. In order to test its effect, linear correlation and regression models were used, based on data collected for the period 2006-2016. Additionally, comparative analysis was used to compare the position of life insurance companies in financial markets. The results obtained by applying correlation and regression analysis showed that there is a strong positive correlation between premium reserve and financial investments in all of the aforementioned countries in the region. This result is an important strategic guideline for the regulators and policymakers to make advancements in the life insurance sector as well as in the financial market of the Western Balkans.

scholarly journals A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONVENTIONAL AND SHARIAH LIFE INSURANCE EFFICIENCY USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulia Saputra ◽  
Muhammad Arfan ◽  
Neni Zahara
Keyword(s):  
Data Envelopment Analysis ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Life Insurance Company ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Test Input

This study aims to analyze and compare the efficiency between conventional life insurance companies and Islamic life insurance companies in Indonesia over the period of 2014-2018. The sample of this study was taken from 10 conventional life insurance companies and 10 shariah life insurance companies that were selected based on the purposive sampling technique. Measurement of efficiency in this study was conducted using the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on Bankers-Charnes-Cooper (BCC) and Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes (CCR) models of the value-added approach. This was followed by testing the hypothesis using a different Mann-Whitney U-test. Input variables used are assets, capital, general and administrative costs, and commission expenses. Meanwhile, the output variables are premiums and investment income. The results showed that conventional life insurance companies are more efficient than Islamic life insurance companies based on the BCC and CCR models. Furthermore, the results of different tests using the Mann-Whitney U-test showed an insignificant difference in efficiency between conventional life insurance companies and Islamic life insurance companies during the study period. The results of the comparison of the average efficiency value with the DEA method indicated that the efficiency level of a conventional life insurance company was better than a shariah life insurance company.========================================================================================================Studi Perbandingan Efisiensi antara Asuransi Jiwa Konvensional dengan Syariah Menggunakan Data Envelopment Analysis. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis perbandingan efisiensi perusahaan asuransi jiwa konvensional dengan perusahaan asuransi jiwa syariah di indonesia pada periode 2014-2018. Sampel penelitian ini adalah 10 perusahaan asuransi jiwa konvensional dan 10 perusahaan asuransi jiwa syariah yang dipilih berdasarkan teknik purposive sampling. Pengukuran efisiensi dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode data envelopment analysis (DEA) dengan model BCC dan CCR berdasarkan pendekatan nilai tambah. dilanjutkan dengan melakukan uji hipotesis menggunakan uji beda mann-whitney u-test. Variabel input yang digunakan adalah aset. modal. biaya administrasi dan umum. dan beban komisi. Sedangkan variabel outputnya adalah premi dan pendapatan investasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa perusahaan asuransi jiwa konvensional lebih efisien dibandingkan perusahaan asuransi jiwa syariah berdasarkan pengukuran dengan model BCC maupun model CCR. Selanjutnya hasil uji beda menggunakan uji mann-whitney u- test menunjukkan bahwa tidak terdapat perbedaan efisiensi yang signifikan antara perusahaan asuransi jiwa konvensional dan perusahaan asuransi jiwa syariah selama periode penelitian ini. Hasil perbandingan nilai efisiensi rata-rata dengan metode DEA menunjukkan bahwa tingkat efisiensi perusahaan asuransi jiwa konvensional lebih baik daripada perusahaan asuransi jiwa syariah.

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