A malmquist index for the Greek insurance industry

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to estimate the effects of deregulation after the implementation of the Third Insurance Directive in the Greek insurance market. Efficiency and productivity measures are estimated by means of data envelopment analysis, applied to a sample of almost all Greek insurance companies, for the period 1994-2003. The companies are separated into three groups: life, non-life and mixed insurance companies, and a Malmquist Index is estimated for each group. The Malmquist index is decomposed into technical efficiency change (pure technical and scale efficiency) and technological change. It is found that the life sector experienced an average annual productivity growth of 16.1 per cent, the non-life sector had a rate of 6.5 per cent and the group of mixed insurance companies had the lowest productivity of 3.3 per cent. © 2010 The International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics.