IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/gpprii/v42y2017i2d10.1057_s41288-016-0036-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Cost of Life Distribution in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Udo Klotzki

    (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU))

  • Nadine Gatzert

    (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU))

  • Bjoern Muenstermann

    (McKinsey & Company, Inc.)

Abstract

The cost of life distribution varies considerably across markets and channels. This is increasingly important for insurers and regulators due to the continuing low interest rate environment in Europe, which strongly affects profits. The aim of this paper is to study the distribution costs of different distribution systems/channels and markets, examine the key drivers of distribution costs and discuss future developments against the background of digitalisation and an increasing intensity of intermediary regulation. Our analysis is based on empirical data for the European insurance market. This is complemented by interviews with several industry experts. Our findings suggest that distribution costs depend on various factors and cannot be explained solely by differences in distribution channel strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Udo Klotzki & Nadine Gatzert & Bjoern Muenstermann, 2017. "The Cost of Life Distribution in Europe," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(2), pages 296-322, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:gpprii:v:42:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1057_s41288-016-0036-x
    DOI: 10.1057/s41288-016-0036-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41288-016-0036-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41288-016-0036-x?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. Regan, Laureen & Tennyson, Sharon, 1996. "Agent Discretion and the Choice of Insurance Marketing System," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 637-666, October.
    2. Patrick L. Brockett & William W. Cooper & Linda L. Golden & John J. Rousseau & Yuying Wang, 2005. "Financial Intermediary Versus Production Approach to Efficiency of Marketing Distribution Systems and Organizational Structure of Insurance Companies," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 393-412, September.
    3. Schiller, Jörg, 2010. "Ökonomische Aspekte der Entlohnung und Regulierung unabhängiger Versicherungsvermittler," FZID Discussion Papers 18-2010, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    4. Lucinda Trigo-Gamarra & Christian Growitsch, 2010. "Comparing Single- and Multichannel Distribution Strategies in the German Life Insurance Market: An Analysis of Cost and Profit Efficiency," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 62(4), pages 401-417, October.
    5. Joong, K.W. & mayers, D. & Smith, C.V., 1996. "On the Choice of Insurance Distribution Systems," The A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management 96-15, The A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management. University of California Riverside.
    6. Yu‐Luen Ma & Nat Pope & Xiaoying Xie, 2014. "Contingent Commissions, Insurance Intermediaries, and Insurer Performance," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 17(1), pages 61-81, March.
    7. Berger, Allen N & Cummins, J David & Weiss, Mary A, 1997. "The Coexistence of Multiple Distribution Systems for Financial Services: The Case of Property-Liability Insurance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 515-546, October.
    8. 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.
    9. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-059 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. J. David Cummins & Jack VanDerhei, 1979. "A Note on the Relative Efficiency of Property-Liability Insurance Distribution Systems," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(2), pages 709-719, Autumn.
    11. Ilaria Dalla Pozza & Lionel Texier, 2014. "Managing multichannel strategies in the service sector: the example of the French insurance industry," Working Papers 2014-59, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    12. Filipe J. Coelho & Chris Easingwood, 2004. "Multiple channel systems in services: pros, cons and issues," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 1-29, September.
    13. Tienyu Hwang & Simon S. Gao, 2005. "An empirical study of cost efficiency in the Irish life insurance industry," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(3), pages 264-280.
    14. Laureen Regan, 1999. "Expense Ratios Across Insurance Distribution Systems: An Analysis By Line Of Business," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 2(2), pages 44-59, January.
    15. repec:ipg:wpaper:58 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Damian Ward, 2002. "The costs of distribution in the UK life insurance market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(15), pages 1959-1968.
    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. Lucia Spotorno & Ornella Moro, 2020. "Do bank-affiliated P&C insurers perform better? An empirical investigation," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(2), pages 225-255, April.
    2. Gatzert, Nadine, 2019. "An analysis of transaction costs in participating life insurance under mean–variance preferences," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 185-197.
    3. Key Pousttchi & Alexander Gleiss, 2019. "Surrounded by middlemen - how multi-sided platforms change the insurance industry," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(4), pages 609-629, 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. Chang Vincent Y. & Wang Jennifer L. & Tzeng Larry Y., 2010. "A Reexamination of the Relationship between Organizational Forms and Distribution Channels in the U.S. Property Liability Insurance Industry," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Dionne, Georges & Harrington, Scott, 2017. "Insurance and Insurance Markets," Working Papers 17-2, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    3. 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.
    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. Martina Eckardt & Solvig Räthke‐Döppner, 2010. "The Quality of Insurance Intermediary Services—Empirical Evidence for Germany," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(3), pages 667-701, September.
    6. Leverty, J. Tyler & Grace, Martin F., 2010. "The robustness of output measures in property-liability insurance efficiency studies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1510-1524, July.
    7. Annette Hofmann & Julia K. Neumann & David Pooser, 2018. "Plea for Uniform Regulation and Challenges of Implementing the New Insurance Distribution Directive," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(4), pages 740-769, October.
    8. Jarraya, Bilel & Bouri, Abdelfettah, 2012. "Efficiency concept and investigations in insurance industry: A survey," MPRA Paper 53544, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2013.
    9. Thomas R. Berry-Stölzle & David L. Eckles, 2019. "It’s about building a book of business: incentives of insurance salespersons from future renewals," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(4), pages 702-731, October.
    10. Venezia, Itzhak & Galai, Dan & Shapira, Zur, 1999. "Exclusive vs. independent agents: a separating equilibrium approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 443-456, December.
    11. Dionne, Georges & Gagné, Robert & Nouira, Abdelhakim, 2007. "Determinants of insurers’ performance in risk pooling, risk management, and financial intermediation activities," Working Papers 07-4, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    12. Saowaros Yaisawarng & Preecha Asavadachanukorn & Suthathip Yaisawarng, 2014. "Efficiency and productivity in the Thai non-life insurance industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 291-306, April.
    13. Bilel Jarraya & Hatem Afi & Anis Omri, 2023. "Analyzing the Profitability and Efficiency in European Non-Life Insurance Industry," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1-25, June.
    14. Weiss, Mary A. & Choi, Byeongyong Paul, 2008. "State regulation and the structure, conduct, efficiency and performance of US auto insurers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 134-156, January.
    15. Laureen Regan, 1999. "Expense Ratios Across Insurance Distribution Systems: An Analysis By Line Of Business," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 2(2), pages 44-59, January.
    16. Shuji Yao & Zhongwei Han & Dan Luo, 2010. "Performance of the Chinese Insurance Industry under Economic Reforms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12788.
    17. L. Lee Colquitt & Kathleen A. McCullough & David W. Sommer, 2011. "An Analysis of Contingent Commission Use by Property–Liability Insurers," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 14(2), pages 157-171, September.
    18. 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.
    19. Parente, Ronaldo & Choi, Byeongyong Paul & Slangen, Arjen H.L. & Ketkar, Sonia, 2010. "Distribution system choice in a service industry: An analysis of international insurance firms operating in the United States," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 275-287, September.
    20. Trigo Gamarra, Lucinda, 2007. "Does the product quality hypothesis hold true? Service quality differences between independent and exclusive insurance agents," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 76, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.

    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:pal:gpprii:v:42:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1057_s41288-016-0036-x. 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.palgrave-journals.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.