IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econpa/v43y2024i2p169-183.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID‐19 and Efficiency, Technology and Productivity Change in Australian Private Health Insurance Funds

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew C. Worthington
  • Lan Nguyen

Abstract

We calculate efficiency change, technological progress and productivity growth in Australian private health insurance (PHI) funds using Malmquist indices from 2016/2017 to 2021/2022. Starting in January 2020, the COVID‐19 pandemic and the various policy responses to it brought significant disruption to the PHI industry with restrictions placed on elective surgery, and hence insured hospital days, and the use of extras cover for dental, physiotherapy, optical and other services. Lockdowns also saw PHI funds implement work‐from‐home arrangements and invest to improve policyholder services; the share of Australians with PHI cover grew counter to trend; global financial markets experienced significant volatility, impacting PHI investment revenue and PHI funds delayed even refunded premiums to offset financial pressures on policyholders. We show that productivity declined during the first 18 months of the pandemic and then grew very strongly. We also find the typical PHI fund is 36.5% more productive at the end of the period than the beginning, with most gains being technological (38.3%), involving a large upward shift in the industry frontier, countering much smaller losses from scale (−0.2%) and pure technical (−1.1%) inefficiency. This suggests that the PHI industry responded well to the disruption associated with the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew C. Worthington & Lan Nguyen, 2024. "COVID‐19 and Efficiency, Technology and Productivity Change in Australian Private Health Insurance Funds," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 43(2), pages 169-183, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:43:y:2024:i:2:p:169-183
    DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12412
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1759-3441.12412?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. J. Cummins & Xiaoying Xie, 2013. "Efficiency, productivity, and scale economies in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 141-164, April.
    3. 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.
    4. Roger Carrington & Tim Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao, 2011. "Australian Private Health Insurance Productivity Growth: Is there Scope to Limit Premium Increases?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(276), pages 125-139, March.
    5. Lan Nguyen & Andrew C. Worthington, 2021. "Industry regulation, fund characteristics, and the efficiency of Australian private health insurers," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 781-801, March.
    6. 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.
    7. 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. Lan Nguyen & Andrew C. Worthington, 2021. "Industry regulation, fund characteristics, and the efficiency of Australian private health insurers," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 781-801, March.
    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. Ndlovu, Thabang, 2022. "Are South African Medical Schemes Efficient? A Longitudinal Analysis," MPRA Paper 115507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo & Schaper, Philipp, 2017. "Get the Balance Right: A Simultaneous Equation Model to Analyze Growth, Profitability, and Safety," Working Papers on Finance 1716, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    5. 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.
    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. Aggelopoulos, Eleftherios & Georgopoulos, Antonios, 2017. "Bank branch efficiency under environmental change: A bootstrap DEA on monthly profit and loss accounting statements of Greek retail branches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(3), pages 1170-1188.
    8. 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.
    9. Qiao-Ming Lim & Hui-Shan Lee & Wai-Mun Har, 0. "Efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of the Malaysian insurance sector: an analysis of risk-based capital regulation," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 0, pages 1-27.
    10. Qiao-Ming Lim & Hui-Shan Lee & Wai-Mun Har, 2021. "Efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of the Malaysian insurance sector: an analysis of risk-based capital regulation," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(1), pages 146-172, January.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Worthington, Andrew C. & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2018. "Data envelopment analysis, truncated regression and double-bootstrap for panel data with application to Chinese bankingAuthor-Name: Du, Kai," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 748-764.
    15. 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.
    16. Ali Shaddady, 2022. "Business environment, political risk, governance, Shariah compliance and efficiency in insurance companies in the MENA region," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(4), pages 861-904, October.
    17. Nie, Pu-yan & Wang, Chan & Chen, Zi-yue & Chen, You-hua, 2018. "A theoretic analysis of key person insurance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 272-278.
    18. 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.
    19. Draženović Bojana Olgić & Hodžić Sabina & Maradin Dario, 2019. "The Efficiency of Mandatory Pension Funds: Case of Croatia," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 82-94, December.
    20. Radojko LUKIC & Miro SOKIC & Dragana Vojteski KLJENAK, 2017. "Efficiency Analysis Of Banking Sector In Republic Of Serbia," Business Excellence and Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 7(4), pages 5-17, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:econpa:v:43:y:2024:i:2:p:169-183. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    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.