IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v315y2022i1d10.1007_s10479-022-04672-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integration and convergence in efficiency and technology gap of European life insurance markets

Author

Listed:
  • J. David Cummins

    (Temple University)

  • María Rubio-Misas

    (Universidad de Málaga)

Abstract

This paper applies the meta-frontier Data Envelopment Analysis and the main concepts of convergence from the economic growth literature (β-convergence and σ-convergence) to analyze integration and convergence both in efficiency and in technology gap of European Union (EU) insurance markets. We evaluate 10 EU life insurance markets over the 17-year-period 1998–2014. Results show convergence in cost/revenue efficiency among major EU life insurance markets during the sample period. These findings indicate that the least efficient countries in 1998 have shown a higher improvement in cost/revenue efficiency than the most efficient countries in the same year as well as that the dispersion of the mean efficiency scores among EU life insurance markets decreased over the sample period. We also find convergence in cost/revenue technology gap among these markets, suggesting that they become more technologically homogeneous during the sample period. However, results show that the global financial crisis has led to a slowdown in the progress of integration and convergence in efficiency and technology gap of EU life insurance markets in terms of cost efficiency but not in terms of revenue efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • J. David Cummins & María Rubio-Misas, 2022. "Integration and convergence in efficiency and technology gap of European life insurance markets," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(1), pages 93-119, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:315:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-022-04672-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-022-04672-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10479-022-04672-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-022-04672-w?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. Cummins, J. David & Rubio-Misas, Maria, 2006. "Deregulation, Consolidation, and Efficiency: Evidence from the Spanish Insurance Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(2), pages 323-355, March.
    2. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6151-8, September.
    3. Matousek, Roman & Rughoo, Aarti & Sarantis, Nicholas & George Assaf, A., 2015. "Bank performance and convergence during the financial crisis: Evidence from the ‘old’ European Union and Eurozone," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 208-216.
    4. Carlos Pestana Barros & Peter Wanke, 2017. "Technology Gaps and Capacity Issues in African Insurance Companies: Selected Country Evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 117-133, January.
    5. Berger, Allen N., 2003. "The efficiency effects of a single market for financial services in Europe," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(3), pages 466-481, November.
    6. Gian-Maria Milesi-Ferretti & Cédric Tille, 2011. "The great retrenchment: international capital flows during the global financial crisis [‘The great trade collapse: what caused it and what does it mean?’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(66), pages 289-346.
    7. Dev Vencappa & Paul Fenn & Stephen Diacon, 2013. "Productivity Growth in the European Insurance Industry: Evidence from Life and Non-Life Companies," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 281-305, July.
    8. Ming-Miin Yu & Li-Hsueh Chen, 2020. "A meta-frontier network data envelopment analysis approach for the measurement of technological bias with network production structure," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 287(1), pages 495-514, April.
    9. 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.
    10. Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Staikouras, Christos & Koutsomanoli-Filippaki, Anastasia, 2008. "Bank efficiency in the new European Union member states: Is there convergence?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1156-1172, December.
    11. Weill, Laurent, 2009. "Convergence in banking efficiency across European countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 818-833, December.
    12. Hristov, Nikolay & Hülsewig, Oliver & Wollmershäuser, Timo, 2012. "Loan supply shocks during the financial crisis: Evidence for the Euro area," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 569-592.
    13. 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.
    14. repec:oup:ecpoli:v:26:y:2011:i:66:p:285-342 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Degl'Innocenti, Marta & Kourtzidis, Stavros A. & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 184-199.
    16. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo, 2018. "Business failure, efficiency, and volatility: Evidence from the European insurance industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 58-76.
    17. Tziogkidis, Panagiotis & Philippas, Dionisis & Tsionas, Mike G., 2020. "Multidirectional conditional convergence in European banking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 88-106.
    18. Cummins, J. David & Rubio-Misas, María & Vencappa, Dev, 2017. "Competition, efficiency and soundness in European life insurance markets," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 66-78.
    19. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    20. Sepideh Kaffash & Marianna Marra, 2017. "Data envelopment analysis in financial services: a citations network analysis of banks, insurance companies and money market funds," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 253(1), pages 307-344, June.
    21. Casu, Barbara & Ferrari, Alessandra & Girardone, Claudia & Wilson, John O.S., 2016. "Integration, productivity and technological spillovers: Evidence for eurozone banking industries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(3), pages 971-983.
    22. Dimitrios G. Giantsios & Athanasios G. Noulas, 2020. "Cost Efficiency and Convergence in the European Nonlife Insurance Industry," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(6), pages 1-6.
    23. Cummins, J. David & Rubio-Misas, Maria & Zi, Hongmin, 2004. "The effect of organizational structure on efficiency: Evidence from the Spanish insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 3113-3150, December.
    24. Rajiv D. Banker & Ram Natarajan, 2008. "Evaluating Contextual Variables Affecting Productivity Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 48-58, February.
    25. Schaper, Philipp, 2017. "Under pressure: how the business environment affects productivity and efficiency of European life insurance companiesAuthor-Name: Eling, Martin," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 1082-1094.
    26. Banker, Rajiv & Natarajan, Ram & Zhang, Daqun, 2019. "Two-stage estimation of the impact of contextual variables in stochastic frontier production function models using Data Envelopment Analysis: Second stage OLS versus bootstrap approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(2), pages 368-384.
    27. George E. Battese & D. S. Prasada Rao, 2002. "Technology Gap, Efficiency, and a Stochastic Metafrontier Function," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 1(2), pages 87-93, August.
    28. Xiaohong Liu & Jiasen Sun & Feng Yang & Jie Wu, 2020. "How ownership structure affects bank deposits and loan efficiencies: an empirical analysis of Chinese commercial banks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 983-1008, July.
    29. Fabio Canova & Albert Marcet, 1995. "The poor stay poor: Non-convergence across countries and regions," Economics Working Papers 137, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jun 1999.
    30. 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.
    31. 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.
    32. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Url, Thomas, 2010. "Single Market effects on productivity in the German insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1540-1548, July.
    33. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo, 2019. "Efficiency and profitability in the global insurance industry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    34. Xiaohong Liu & Feng Yang & Jie Wu, 2020. "DEA considering technological heterogeneity and intermediate output target setting: the performance analysis of Chinese commercial banks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 291(1), pages 605-626, August.
    35. Muhammed Altuntas & Thomas R. Berry-Stölzle & J. David Cummins, 2021. "Enterprise risk management and economies of scale and scope: evidence from the German insurance industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 811-845, April.
    36. Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia, 2010. "Integration and efficiency convergence in EU banking markets," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 260-267, October.
    37. Parikh, Ashok & Shibata, Miyuki, 2004. "Does trade liberalization accelerate convergence in per capita incomes in developing countries?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 33-48, February.
    38. Cheng, Zhonghua & Liu, Jun & Li, Lianshui & Gu, Xinbei, 2020. "Research on meta-frontier total-factor energy efficiency and its spatial convergence in Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    39. 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.
    40. Christopher O’Donnell & D. Rao & George Battese, 2008. "Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 231-255, March.
    41. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    42. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    43. Al-Amri, Khalid & David Cummins, J. & Weiss, Mary A., 2021. "Economies of scope, organizational form, and insolvency risk: Evidence from the takaful industry," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    44. J. David Cummins & Mary A. Weiss & Hongmin Zi, 1999. "Organizational Form and Efficiency: The Coexistence of Stock and Mutual Property-Liability Insurers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(9), pages 1254-1269, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Lei & Wang, Ying-Ming, 2023. "Game directional distance function in meta-frontier data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    2. María Rubio‐Misas, 2022. "Analysis of insurers' performance using frontier efficiency and productivity methods. The great contributions by David Cummins and Mary Weiss," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 25(4), pages 445-489, December.
    3. Shoaib Alam Siddiqui & Ali Shaddady, 2023. "How Profit Efficient is Indian Life Insurance Industry: A DEA Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.

    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. David Cummins, J. & Rubio-Misas, María, 2021. "Country factor behavior for integration improvement of European life insurance markets," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 186-202.
    2. 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.
    3. María Rubio‐Misas, 2022. "Analysis of insurers' performance using frontier efficiency and productivity methods. The great contributions by David Cummins and Mary Weiss," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 25(4), pages 445-489, December.
    4. Shoaib Alam Siddiqui & Ali Shaddady, 2023. "How Profit Efficient is Indian Life Insurance Industry: A DEA Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Martin Eling & Martin Lehmann & Philipp Schaper, 2022. "Optimal labor and capital utilization by financial firms: evidence from the German property and casualty insurance industry," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(5), pages 853-897, July.
    8. Jacob A. Bikker, 2017. "Performance of the life insurance industry under pressure: efficiency, competition and consolidation," Chapters, in: Jacob A. Bikker & Laura Spierdijk (ed.), Handbook of Competition in Banking and Finance, chapter 9, pages 152-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Kramarić Tomislava Pavić & Miletić Marko, 2019. "The Boone Indicator as Determinant of Croatian Insurance Market Soundness," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Dimitrios G. Giantsios & Athanasios G. Noulas, 2020. "Cost Efficiency and Convergence in the European Nonlife Insurance Industry," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(6), pages 1-6.
    11. Tziogkidis, Panagiotis & Philippas, Dionisis & Tsionas, Mike G., 2020. "Multidirectional conditional convergence in European banking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 88-106.
    12. Muhammed Altuntas & Thomas R. Berry-Stölzle & J. David Cummins, 2021. "Enterprise risk management and economies of scale and scope: evidence from the German insurance industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 811-845, April.
    13. Jarraya, Bilel & Bouri, Abdelfettah, 2012. "Efficiency concept and investigations in insurance industry: A survey," MPRA Paper 53544, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2013.
    14. Tai-Hsin Huang & Yi-Chun Lin & Kuo-Jui Huang & Yu-Wei Liao, 2022. "Comparing Cost Efficiency Between Financial and Non-financial Holding Banks and Insurers in Taiwan Under the Framework of Copula Methods and Metafrontier," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 29(4), pages 735-766, December.
    15. Lei Peng & Zhaotong Lian, 2021. "Diversification and efficiency of life insurers in China and India," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(4), pages 710-730, October.
    16. Degl'Innocenti, Marta & Kourtzidis, Stavros A. & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 184-199.
    17. Wanke, Peter & Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2016. "Efficiency drivers in Brazilian insurance: A two-stage DEA meta frontier-data mining approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 8-22.
    18. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & V.G.R. Chandran, 2020. "A decomposition analysis of managerial efficiency for the insurance companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 885-901, September.
    19. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan, 2020. "Irrigation infrastructure and farm productivity in the Philippines: A stochastic Meta-Frontier analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Schaper, Philipp, 2017. "Under pressure: how the business environment affects productivity and efficiency of European life insurance companiesAuthor-Name: Eling, Martin," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 1082-1094.

    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:spr:annopr:v:315:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-022-04672-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.