IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/apjrin/v14y2020i1p25n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Cost Efficiency of Indian Life Insurers: A comparison of Quantity vs Value based DEA Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Sen Subir

    (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand247667, India)

Abstract

In the context of measuring economic performance, efficiency and productivity of Indian life insurance firms, there are studies using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology. In this paper, the difference between the quantity based approach and value based approach is highlighted and elaborated using data of Indian life insurers operational over the period 2005–06 to 2015–16. There are both advantages and disadvantages of using DEA, as highlighted in the theoretical literature. In particular, the efficiency estimates are heavily influenced by the selection of inputs and outputs. This study provides an insight on technical efficiency and innovates in terms of data use and is the first study on the Indian insurance industry to compute cost and allocative efficiencies. Four hypotheses were tested in the study. First, there were initially improvements in efficiency but in recent years, clearly there is stagnation. Second, the results support views of Tone and Sahoo (2005) and Sen (2010), that the public life insurer, the Life Insurance Corporation of India is cost inefficient. The private life insurers need to reallocate resources to improve overall efficiency. LICI was found to be technically efficient but remained cost inefficient. Third, the traditional Farrell based cost efficiency estimates are significantly different from Tone (2002) alternative approach. Therefore, choice of estimation method is important. Fourth, non-discretionary factors such as age, premium growth and size of the insurers along with regulations pertaining to solvency affect cost efficiency. Key financial ratios such as expense ratio, commission ratio, conservation ratio and persistency ratio, and retention ratio are used to statistically establish their relationship with the different efficiency estimates. Results also show that entry of a new insurer may negatively affect cost efficiency of an existing insurer but foreign equity could positively improve cost efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Sen Subir, 2020. "Analysis of Cost Efficiency of Indian Life Insurers: A comparison of Quantity vs Value based DEA Approach," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-25, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:apjrin:v:14:y:2020:i:1:p:25:n:4
    DOI: 10.1515/apjri-2018-0027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/apjri-2018-0027
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/apjri-2018-0027?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Georges Dionne (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of Insurance," Springer Books, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-4614-0155-1, September.
    2. Mei Xue & Patrick T. Harker, 1999. "Overcoming the Inherent Dependency of DEA Efficiency Scores: A Bootstrap Approach," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 99-17, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Nektarios, Milton & Assaf, A., 2010. "Efficiency in the Greek insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 431-436, September.
    4. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1985. " Nonparametric Cost Approach to Scale Efficiency," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(4), pages 594-604.
    5. Robin Cross & Rolf Färe, 2008. "Farrell efficiency under value and quantity data," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 193-199, June.
    6. Cummins, J. David & Tennyson, Sharon & Weiss, Mary A., 1999. "Consolidation and efficiency in the US life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 325-357, February.
    7. Andrew M. Yuengert, 1993. "The measurement of efficiency in life insurance estimates of a mixed normal-gamma error model," Research Paper 9308, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Olivier Donni & Fabienne Fecher, 1997. "Efficiency and Productivity of the Insurance Industry in the OECD Countries," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 22(4), pages 523-535, October.
    9. A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper & E. Rhodes, 1981. "Evaluating Program and Managerial Efficiency: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Program Follow Through," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 668-697, June.
    10. Tone, Kaoru & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2005. "Evaluating cost efficiency and returns to scale in the Life Insurance Corporation of India using data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 261-285, December.
    11. Grosskopf, S, 1986. "The Role of the Reference Technology in Measuring Productive Efficiency," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 499-513, June.
    12. Subhash C. Ray, 1991. "Resource-Use Efficiency in Public Schools: A Study of Connecticut Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(12), pages 1620-1628, December.
    13. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1997. "Efficiency of financial institutions: International survey and directions for future research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 175-212, April.
    14. Karl C. Ennsfellner & Danielle Lewis & Randy I. Anderson, 2004. "Production Efficiency in the Austrian Insurance Industry: A Bayesian Examination," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 135-159, March.
    15. Joe Zhu, 2009. "Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-0-387-85982-8, September.
    16. J. Cummins & Hongmin Zi, 1998. "Comparison of Frontier Efficiency Methods: An Application to the U.S. Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 131-152, October.
    17. Ray, Subhash C., 1988. "Data envelopment analysis, nondiscretionary inputs and efficiency: an alternative interpretation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 167-176.
    18. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    19. Yuengert, Andrew M., 1993. "The measurement of efficiency in life insurance: Estimates of a mixed normal-gamma error model," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 483-496, April.
    20. Fenn, Paul & Vencappa, Dev & Diacon, Stephen & Klumpes, Paul & O'Brien, Chris, 2008. "Market structure and the efficiency of European insurance companies: A stochastic frontier analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 86-100, January.
    21. Finn Førsund, 2013. "Weight restrictions in DEA: misplaced emphasis?," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 271-283, December.
    22. Cook, Wade D. & Seiford, Larry M., 2009. "Data envelopment analysis (DEA) - Thirty years on," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 1-17, January.
    23. Ray,Subhash C., 2012. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107405264.
    24. Cummins, J. David & Weiss, Mary A. & Xie, Xiaoying & Zi, Hongmin, 2010. "Economies of scope in financial services: A DEA efficiency analysis of the US insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1525-1539, July.
    25. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    26. Fukuyama, Hirofumi, 1997. "Investigating productive efficiency and productivity changes of Japanese life insurance companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 481-509, September.
    27. Ana María Reyna & Hugo J. Fuentes, 2018. "A cost efficiency analysis of the insurance industry in Mexico," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 49-64, February.
    28. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    29. K Tone, 2002. "A strange case of the cost and allocative efficiencies in DEA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(11), pages 1225-1231, November.
    30. Martin Eling & Michael Luhnen, 2010. "Frontier Efficiency Methodologies to Measure Performance in the Insurance Industry: Overview, Systematization, and Recent Developments," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 35(2), pages 217-265, April.
    31. Russell G. Thompson & F. D. Singleton & Robert M. Thrall & Barton A. Smith, 1986. "Comparative Site Evaluations for Locating a High-Energy Physics Lab in Texas," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 35-49, December.
    32. Cummins, J. David & Weiss, Mary A., 1993. "Measuring cost efficiency in the property-liability insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 463-481, April.
    33. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    34. Emrouznejad, Ali & Parker, Barnett R. & Tavares, Gabriel, 2008. "Evaluation of research in efficiency and productivity: A survey and analysis of the first 30 years of scholarly literature in DEA," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 151-157, September.
    35. R. Allen & A. Athanassopoulos & R.G. Dyson & E. Thanassoulis, 1997. "Weights restrictions and value judgements in Data Envelopment Analysis: Evolution, development and future directions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 73(0), pages 13-34, October.
    36. Ram Pratap Sinha, 2007. "Premium Income of Indian Life Insurance Industry: A Total Factor Productivity Approach," The IUP Journal of Financial Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1), pages 61-69, March.
    37. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, September.
    38. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin, 2012. "Organization and efficiency in the international insurance industry: A cross-frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 454-468.
    39. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Wirfs, Jan Hendrik, 2016. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in the Swiss insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 703-714.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Wirfs, Jan Hendrik, 2016. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in the Swiss insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 703-714.
    2. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    3. Milton Nektarios & Panos Xenos & George Nektarios & Kostas Poulakis & Michalis Chouzouris, 2015. "Efficiency Analysis of Lloyd’s Syndicates: A Comparison of DEA and SFA Approaches," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 65(1-2), pages 27-46, January-M.
    4. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    5. Kuan-Chen Chen & Chung-I Lin, 2020. "Studies on the Determinants of Efficiency in Taiwanese Life Insurance Industry - Application of Bootstrapped Truncated Model," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 1-4.
    6. Shuji Yao & Zhongwei Han & Dan Luo, 2010. "Performance of the Chinese Insurance Industry under Economic Reforms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12788.
    7. Jarraya, Bilel & Bouri, Abdelfettah, 2012. "Efficiency concept and investigations in insurance industry: A survey," MPRA Paper 53544, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2013.
    8. Trigo Gamarra, Lucinda, 2007. "Single- versus multi-channel distribution strategies in the German life insurance market: A cost and profit efficiency analysis," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 81, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    9. Lampe, Hannes W. & Hilgers, Dennis, 2015. "Trajectories of efficiency measurement: A bibliometric analysis of DEA and SFA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 1-21.
    10. Eling, Martin & Luhnen, Michael, 2010. "Efficiency in the international insurance industry: A cross-country comparison," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1497-1509, July.
    11. Jin Lung Peng & Lih Ru Chen & Jennifer L. Wang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2017. "Diversification Versus Strategic Focus: Evidence from Insurance Intermediaries in Taiwan," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(3), pages 530-555, July.
    12. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    13. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    14. Huang, Tai-Hsin & Lin, Chung-I & Wu, Ruei-Cian, 2019. "Assessing the marketing and investment efficiency of Taiwan’s life insurance firms under network structures," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 132-147.
    15. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Wen-Min Lu & Anna Strutt, 2022. "Evaluating traditional, dynamic and network business models: an efficiency-based study of Chinese insurance companies," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(4), pages 905-943, October.
    16. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin, 2012. "Organization and efficiency in the international insurance industry: A cross-frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 454-468.
    17. Chakraborty Kalyan & Dutta Anirban & Sengupta Partha Pratim, 2012. "Efficiency and Productivity of Indian Life Insurance Industry," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, December.
    18. Kwaku Ohene-Asare & Jones Kofi Anyimadu Asare & Charles Turkson, 2019. "Dynamic cost productivity and economies of scale of Ghanaian insurers," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(1), pages 148-177, January.
    19. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo, 2017. "The structure of the global reinsurance market: An analysis of efficiency, scale, and scope," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 213-229.
    20. Andrew C. Worthington & Emily V. Hurley, 2000. "Technical, allocative and cost efficiency in the Australian general insurance industry," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 074, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:apjrin:v:14:y:2020:i:1:p:25:n:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.