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The effect of size and other economic factors on the expense rate behaviour of UK life insurance companies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2012

P. D. Praetz
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Extract

This paper finds a strong size effect for the total business of 106 U.K. life companies from the 1981–82 Insurance Directory and Year Book.

The industry is regulated by the 1982 Insurance Companies Act which consolidated earlier legislation. This does not control output or prices of firms but many other items including investment. The industry is not highly concentrated with the five largest firms in 1980 with 30% of premiums. In 1980, total ordinary branch premiums amounted to £5.8 billion.

Section 2 surveys briefly some relevant research, while §3 discusses the data and size and other economic factors for life assurance firms. Section 4 discusses the empirical results while §5 has a brief conclusion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Institute of Actuaries , Volume 110 , Issue 2 , September 1983 , pp. 383 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1983

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