IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/manchs/v69y2001i3p327-349.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimates of Scale and Scope Economies in the New Zealand Life Insurance Industry

Author

Listed:
  • M. Khaled
  • M. B. Adams
  • M. Pickford

Abstract

Recent multi‐product statistical studies of production in life insurance industries in North America and the UK have produced mixed findings with regard to economies of scale and scope. This study presents results for the life insurance industry in New Zealand, which has a small economy where the industry is comparatively unregulated. A total of 135 pooled observations for the population of non‐bank life insurance companies for the period 1988–92 are used in a two‐input two‐output generalized translog model. Product‐specific economies of scale are measured in a variety of ways including two new ones, using what we have called ‘quasi average incremental cost’ and ‘partial average cost’. We find that while small companies could benefit from economies of scale, the optimum firm size is modest, and that medium‐ and large‐sized companies experience approximately constant returns to scale. In contrast, small‐ and medium‐sized companies experience diseconomies of scope, while the large‐sized companies have neither economies nor diseconomies of scope.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Khaled & M. B. Adams & M. Pickford, 2001. "Estimates of Scale and Scope Economies in the New Zealand Life Insurance Industry," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 69(3), pages 327-349, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:69:y:2001:i:3:p:327-349
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9957.00251
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9957.00251
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9957.00251?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Wise William, 2020. "The Importance of the Efficiency of Mutual Life Insurers: A Comparison to Stock Life Insurers," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 474-505, June.
    2. Ogunyinka, Ebenezer & Featherstone, Allen M., 2003. "On The Choice Of Functional Forms In The Measurement Of Scale And Scope Economies: Generalized Box-Cox And Composite Cost Functions," 2003 Annual Meeting, February 1-5, 2003, Mobile, Alabama 35057, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

    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:manchs:v:69:y:2001:i:3:p:327-349. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/semanuk.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.