An empirical study of cost efficiency in the Irish life insurance industry

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation

Volumn 2, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 264-280

  Hwang, Tienyu ^a   Gao, Simon S ^b  

^a MING CHUAN UNIVERSITY   (Taiwan)

^b Edinburgh Napier University   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Bancassurance; Cost efficiency; Economies of scale; Firm size; Irish life insurance market

Indexed keywords

EID: 33845719338     PISSN: 17408008     EISSN: 17408016     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJAAPE.2005.007675     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. Baumol, J.W., Panzar, C.J. and Willig, D.R. (1982) Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York.
2. Berger, N.A. (1993) "Distribution-Free' estimates of efficiency in the US banking industry and tests of the standard distributional assumptions', Journal of Productivity Analysis, Vol. 4, pp.261-292.
3. Black Jr., K. and Skipper Jr., H. (1994) Life Insurance, Prentice-Hall International, Inc., New Jersey.
4. Charnes, A., Cooper, W. and Rhodes, E. (1978) 'Measuring the efficiency of decision making units', European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 2, pp.429-444.
5. Cummins, J.D. and Weiss, A.M. (1993) 'Measuring cost efficiency in the property-liability insurance Industry', Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 17, pp.463-481.
6. Cummins, J.D. and Zi, H. (1998) 'Comparison of frontier efficiency methods: An application to the US life insurance industry', Journal of Productivity Analysis, Vol. 10, pp.131-152.
7. Cummins, J.D., Tennyson, S. and Weiss, A.M. (1999) 'Consolidation and efficiency in the US life insurance industry', Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 23, pp.325-357.
8. Diacon, S.R., Starkey, K. and O'Brien, C. (2002) 'Size and efficiency in European long-term insurance companies: an international comparison', The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Vol. 27, pp.444-466.
9. Doherty, N.A. (1981) 'The measurement of output and economies of scale in property-liability insurance', Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 48, pp.390-402.
10. European Commission (1996) Insurance in Europe, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
11. Gardner, L.A. and Grace, M.F. (1993) 'X-efficiency in the US life insurance industry', Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 17, pp.497-510.
12. Grace, M.F. and Timme, S.G. (1992) 'An examination of cost economies in the United States life insurance industry', Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 59, pp.72-103.
13. Hardwick, P. (1997) 'Measuring cost inefficiency in the UK life insurance industry', Applied Financial Economics, Vol. 7, pp.37-44.
14. Hardwick, P. and Adams, M. (2002) 'Firm size and growth in the United Kingdom life insurance industry', Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 69, pp.577-593.
15. Hirshhorn, R. and Geehan, R. (1977) 'Measuring the real output of the life insurance industry', Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 59, pp.211-219.
16. Kellner, S. and Mathewson, G.F. (1983) 'Entry, size distribution, scale, and scope economies in the life insurance industry', Journal of Business, Vol. 56, pp.25-44.
17. Khaled, M., Adams, M.B. and Pickford, M. (2001) 'Estimates of scale and scope economies in the New Zealand life insurance industry', The Manchester School, Vol. 69, pp.327-349.
18. Letza, S., Hardwick, P. and Kowalski, T. (2001) 'Efficiency in the UK life insurance industry: mutual firms versus proprietary firms', Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Vol. 6, pp.40-49.
19. McIntosh, J. (1998) 'Scale efficiency in a dynamic model of Canadian insurance companies', Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 65, pp.303-317.
20. Noulas, A., Lazaridis, J., Hatzigayios, T. and Lyroudi, K. (2001) 'Non-parametric production frontier approach to the study of efficiency of non-life insurance companies in Greece', Journal of Financial Management and Analysis, Vol. 14, pp.19-26.
21. Ryan, E.H. and Schellhorn, D.C. (2000) 'Life insurer cost efficiency before and after implementation of the NAIC risk-based capital standards', Journal of Insurance Regulation, Vol. 18, pp.362-384.
22. Swiss Reinsurance Company (2003) World Insurance in 2002: High Premium Growth in Non-Life Insurance, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich.
23. Ward, D. (2002) 'The costs of distribution in the UK life insurance market', Applied Economics, Vol. 34, pp.1959-1968.
24. Worthington, C.A. and Hurley, V.E. (2002) 'Cost efficiency in Australian general insurers: a non-parametric approach', British Accounting Review, Vol. 34, pp.89-108.
25. Yuengert, A.M. (1993) 'The measurement of efficiency in life insurance: estimates of a mixed normal-gamma error model', Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 17, pp.483-496.