Total Premium Research Articles

General Insurance Subsector Financial Performance in 2020/2021: Does the Covid-19 Pandemic Matter?

This paper is aimed at analyzing the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the performance of general insurance subsector in Indonesia. Secondary data obtained from the Indonesia Financial Service Authority which include annual growth rate (year on year) of total asset, technical reserve, investment, equity, and net premium income for the periods between April 2019, 2020 and 2021 to March 2019, 2020 and 2021 were used in this study. Using the dependent sample t-test, it is revealed that the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the performance of general insurance subsector were varied. The growth rates of the total asset, total investment, and net premium income of general insurance subsector significantly decreased during the covid-19 pandemic. The decline of these variables was influenced by the covid-19 pandemic. In the meantime, the growth rate of technical reserve and equity were not significantly influenced by the covid-19 pandemic. The growth rate of these variables decreases; however, the degree of decreases was not statistically significant. Findings of the study indicate that further study is required to examine in more detail the factors that potentially affect the performance of the general insurance subsector in relation to the covid-19 pandemic.

Information technology and insurance development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The study examined the relationship between information technology and insurance development in 40 sub-Saharan African countries during the period 2000-2017. The study employed System Generalised Method of Moment for the estimations. Life insurance premiums, non-life insurance premiums and total insurance premiums are used to measure life insurance, non-life insurance and total insurance, respectively. The information technology is measured by mobile phone, fixed telephone and Internet penetrations. The study found that the Internet promotes non-life insurance while its effect on life and total insurance is insignificant. The mobile phone produced a negative effect on life insurance, non-life insurance and total insurance. However, fixed telephone significantly contributed to life insurance, non-life insurance and total insurance. Based on these findings, there is a need for insurers to encourage their client to use information technology tools for insurance activities and also increase their interaction with their customers.

Türkiye’de Büyükbaş Hayvan Hayat Sigortası Talebinin Count Data Yöntemiyle Tahmini: TRAI Bölgesi Örneği

Agriculture sector faces natural, social and economic risks resulting from its production structure. One of the strategies to be used to transfer such risks is agricultural insurance. It was aimed in the present study to estimate the demand of farmers for cattle insurance (CI) and determine the effective factors which can increase the share of premium production of CI in total premium production of agricultural insurance in TRA1 Region. Data were obtained from 122 farms determined using proportional sampling method in the provinces of Erzurum, Erzincan and Bayburt (TRA1 Region) through a questionnaire survey. Count Data Model was used in convenience with the aim of the study. According to the results obtained, when premium cost of CI increased 3 folds, then the number of animals desired to be insured decreased by nearly 1-fold. In addition, when the budget allocated for agricultural production and the probability of animal disease both increased by 1%, the number of animals desired to be insured increased by 1.56% and 0.61%, respectively.

Top three LNG buyers to search for alternative LNG pricing structure after paying a total cost premium of $56 billion for oil-indexed LNG contracts in 2019 and 2020 – how will this affect Australia as the number one supplier to this market?

Increasing spreads between spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil-indexed contracts have resulted in the world’s top three LNG buyers paying a cost premium of $33 billion in 2019 and 23 billion in 2020. The top three buyers are Japan, China and South Korea, which had a combined 151Mt of long-term LNG contracts indexed to oil in 2020. This cost premium shows what top Asian buyers are currently paying for the security of LNG supply through long-term oil-indexed contracts. However, it also shows the potential reward Asian buyers have if they manage to develop a liquid LNG pricing hub in Asia to which they can index their contracts. Japanese buyers’ efforts of increasing flexibility in contracts, both through take-or-pay agreements and destination flexibility and aims of growing the spot market, will increasingly support the liquidity of the LNG market. However, there will be resistance from the other side of the table, for where someone is paying a premium, or making a loss, someone is making money. 2020 was another year of plenty for LNG producers selling oil-indexed volumes to Asian markets. Australia is the largest seller of LNG to Japan, China and South Korea with over 60Mt of long-term LNG contracts indexed to oil in 2020. Australia has benefited from having their contracts indexed to oil, but what’s next? In this paper, Rystad Energy will discuss the future market for Australian LNG exports including development in LNG demand, contract trends and price spreads.

Impact of Lapsed Policies in Life Insurance Industries of Nepal

Growth and competition are rapidly rising in life insurance sector. Companies have challenge to stay in the market and earn profit as well as build trust among the end users. In this context, companies have to expand business by selling more life insurance policies. However, only selling new policies might not be the solution to increase profit. Thus, company needs to ensure minimum to zero lapse rates for the sustainable growth of the company. This study investigated the impact of lapse rate and revival rate on net worth, profitability, life fund, and total premium income of life insurance industries in Nepal over the period 2010-2019. The study employed Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for empirical estimation. The empirical results showed the lapse rate, profitability, revival rate and surrender rate of 23.91%, 2.64%, 88.82% and 3.83%, respectively in the life insurance industries in Nepal during the 10 years’ period. The lapse rate was significantly negatively correlated with life fund and the total premium income with the–model coefficients of 0.1474065 and -0.19244, respectively. Moreover, the empirical estimation showed a significant positive correlation between lapse rate and profitability. This might be because high lapse rate lowers the provision of unexpired risk and life fund resulting in higher amount of profitability. The revival rate was significantly positively correlated with the profitability. This might be because higher revival rate increases the renewal income of a company, resulting in more funds available for investment thereby bringing positive cash inflow for the company. However, the revival rate did not show any significant association with net worth, life fund and total premium income.

Prospect of Life Insurance Industry in India - A Study

Indian Life Insurance Industry has contributed to the financial sector of Indian economy. It provides both social security as well as tax benefit to the policy holders. In this study prospect of Life Insurance Industry over the years 2009-10 to 2018-19 has been highlighted. Indian economy has gone through a bad phase, so Life Insurance Industry does not significantly contribute to the economy. Prospect of Public life insurance company i.e. LICI and 23 private life insurance companies have been shown in this study. From the study, we have seen that total premium collection of life insurance industry has gone up. Market share of LICI has gone down and share of private entrants has gone up. Moreover in this study, we have seen that over the years policy holders still seek for traditional life fund over unit link fund because of less risk associated with traditional fund.

Investments and portfolio structure of private pension and insurance companies in North Macedonia

The financial market in general is where supply and demand for funds are met. In other words, funds saved in the financial market are directed to investments in order to contribute to the economy. In the Macedonian financial market, the banking sector is really dominant but also pension funds and insurance funds have an active role. This research will be studied the distribution of pension funds’ portfolios in the North Macedonian financial market. The global financial crisis in 2008 negatively affected the economies and financial markets of many countries, including the USA and Europe, and the effects of the crisis continued until 2013. This negatively affected the confidence in the financial markets, and the current surplus of funds was directed towards low-risk but fixed or low-yield financial instruments. As of 31.12.2018, fund accumulation in private pension funds amounted to 1.04 billion euros, corresponding to approximately 10 percent of GDP. The total premium production of insurance companies is around 157 million euros, while the GDP ratio of premium production is around 1.5 percent. Funds collected in both sectors are generally used in treasury bills, bank deposits, and stocks traded on the Macedonia Stock Exchange and foreign financial markets.

Crowding out agricultural insurance and the subsidy system in Italy: empirical evidence of the charity hazard phenomenon

PurposeThe term “charity hazard” refers to the issue of the crowding out of insurance by co-existing relief programs in the context of different institutional governmental disaster schemes. In this context, the aim of this paper is to verify if the charity hazard phenomenon exists in the Italian agricultural insurance scheme.Design/methodology/approachAnnual data regarding crop insurance, subsidies and farm structure were extracted from ISMEA, ISTAT and FADN databases. A SYS-GMM dynamic panel model was estimated, considering the 2010–2017 time period and the Italian Regions as units of the analysis.FindingsThe empirical results highlight a negative relation between crop subsidies and the farmers' policies and total premium paid. The disincentive and crowd-out effects of public aid and subsidies on the choice of whether or not to take out an agricultural insurance policy ends up being one of the key factors for the low level of penetration of the agricultural insurance in Italy.Practical implicationsSince the diffusion of agricultural insurance can contribute to the general objective of sustainability and resilience, the implementation of alternative solutions to subsidies could be needed (e.g. the introduction of mandatory insurance against adversities or financial support for a geographically specific insurance tool).Originality/valueInvestigating empirically the determinants of the agricultural insurance policy diffusion among the Italian Regions, this study ensures an original contribution to the scientific progress in the field, demonstrating the existence of charity hazard caused by the public subsidies provision.

Review on Insurance and their Present Status in Nepalese Economy

The study aims to overview the types of insurance operating in Nepal, product delivered by them and status of insurance market in Nepalese economic development. The paper is based on secondary data and literature reviews. Insurance can be acknowledged as tool that shares risk, offers financial protection, minimizes the financial distress and accelerates the pace of economic growth. Insurance encourages saving in the society and collects the scattered fund in term of premium and invest for maximization. Presently 40 insurance companies (19 life insurance, 20 non-life insurance and 1 reinsurance) are operating in Nepal providing diversified range of services. Recently agriculture insurance on crop and livestock sector and health insurance policy is being offered through many governmental and private insurance companies of Nepal. Insurance Board statistics of 2017 revealed total premium of 46.97 billion rupees and 2.03% contribution in total gross domestic product. We cannot deny the fact that insurance market of Nepal is witnessing major obstacles in terms of new product innovation, service issues related to consumers and time lapse of long-term policy. The study concludes that with little improvisation based on market research and consumer awareness can lead insurance companies & the concept to a peak level in Nepal.

Insurance Sector Development and Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria

Aims: The study examined the impact of insurance sector development on foreign direct investment in Nigeria.
 Study Design: The ex-post facto research design was employed to observe the study components in retrospect. Secondary data spanning 1996 to 2017 was sourced and collated from the World Development Indicators, Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and National Insurance Commission annual balance sheets.
 Place and Duration of Study: Department of Banking and Finance, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The study was carried out between November 2019 to January 2020.
 Methodology: The ex-post facto research design was employed to observe the study components in retrospect. Secondary data spanning 1996 to 2017 was sourced and collated from the World Development Indicators, Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and National Insurance Commission annual balance sheets. The time series data was estimated using the least square technique.
 Results: The results indicates that; the total asset size of the insurance sector exerts a negative and statistically insignificant impact on foreign direct investment inflow to Nigeria, total insurance business investment exerts a positive and statistically insignificant impact on foreign direct investment inflow to Nigeria and finally, total insurance premium exerts a negative and statistically significant impact on foreign direct investment inflow to Nigeria.
 Conclusion: The study concludes that insurance sector development does not attract foreign investment inflow to Nigeria. The study recommends that the insurance sector should be revamped in order to absorb risk and uncertainty and be a vehicle for risk transfer and minimization. A policy of restructuring would help instil public confidence, boost insurance policy sales, increase insurance premium and invariably increase the availability of investible funds to boost economic activity. The study suggests that these would help attract foreign direct investment to meet domestic funding needs of Nigeria.

Calculating Premium Credibility Using the Buhlmann-Straub Modelwith Nonparametric Assessment

When an insurance company calculates the premium it will divides the policy holders into groups. The division is considered based on risk level in each group. The problem is then to devise a way of combining the experience risk of the group with the experience of the individual risk to calculate the premium, so then Credibility Theory provides a solution to this problem.This script discuss about calculation of credibility premium use Buhlmann-Straub Model with nonparametric estimation to the aggregate claim amount data set within few years observation in some group of policy holders in general insurance. By using credibility theory we can calculate the value of credibility factor and credibility premium or future premium. The value of premium credibility is calculated from only one group of policyholders from the previous year's data. For better value of premium credibility, data with more experience years and the policyholder group better reflect the total loss value during the observation year.The result of this calculation are credibility factor per group, average credibility premium per members in group and credibility premium total for the last year for each group. We can obtain total losses and total premium which surprisingly equal.

An Evaluation of the New Japanese Bonus–Malus System with No-claim and Claimed Subclasses

Abstract The purpose of this research is to evaluate the new Japanese Bonus–Malus System (BMS 2012) in automobile insurance, which is an unusual system wherein both no-claim and claimed subclasses exist. To evaluate BMS 2012, we conduct a simulation analysis and compare BMS 2012 with the former Japanese BMS (BMS 2009) in terms of the present value of the total insurance premium that is closely related to the frequency of insurance claims. Based on the comparison, our main conclusion is that BMS 2012 offers more effects to lower the frequency of insurance claims than BMS 2009 does when the policyholders’ classes in BMS are high classes that evaluate as safety drivers, time discount and/or renewal rates are relatively low, and the policyholders’ risk averseness is large.

Implications of Alternative Crop Insurance Subsidies

AbstractIn this research, we analyze the economic effects across various crop insurance subsidy and policy scenarios to determine producer insurance choice response, total premium and subsidy payments and study their economic implications on dryland corn, soybean, and winter wheat producers. We rely on the expected utility maximization framework to rank policy combination sets that are available to a typical producer to analyze the impacts of crop insurance subsidy changes and elimination of certain insurance policies across the three crops. Several scenarios were analyzed across subsidy and policy options and were found to have noticeably different farmer behavioral responses and economic implications.

Organic Food Consumption: The Relevance of the Health Attribute

During the last decades, organic food products have become the main sustainable alternative to conventional food consumption. Among the several organic food attributes that consumers recognize in organic food, healthiness has been reported as the primary motivation to buy products certified as organic. The objective of the current study is to assess the relative weight of the health attribute among other recognized organic food attributes. To achieve this aim, a multiple price list (MPL) methodology is adopted to elicit consumers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for organic extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Findings show that the contribution of the health attribute to determine the average premium price for organic EVOO is 78.9% of its total premium price. The study generates managerial implications to promote further expansion of the organic food market.

Micro-specific Profitability Factors of the Serbian Insurance Industry: A Panel Data Estimation

The paper investigates the main micro-specific profitability determinants of the insurance industry in Serbia, covering the period 2008–2016. Data set includes accounting ratios for 19 universal insurers, officially reported by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS). We have estimated the fixed effects model using the OLS and GLM estimation procedures, with return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on total premium (ROTP) as the response variables. The estimated results from different models are quite consistent, with some minor deviations related mainly to the magnitude of the effects. Specifically, there is a trade-off between liquidity and profitability, and the insurance companies exploit economies of scale extensively. Loss and risk exposure have significant adverse effect on profitability, while productivity proved to be not significant. In addition, the relative market power (market position) and size have significant positive impact on profitability, while business specialization favors insurance over reinsurance, particularly the life-insurance business, as well as the business specialization dummies (insurance vs. reinsurance, life vs. nonlife insurance). Consequently, an optimal profitability strategy should be based on mergers and acquisitions, appropriate risk-taking and risk-management practices, and business sophistication through specialization. In addition, the companies should weight costs and benefits of keeping an excess of liquid reserves. The results also indicate further market concentration due to the size effects, and it could result in higher prices and lower quality of the services. This in turn imposes the new regulatory challenges in terms of the optimal antitrust strategy and appropriate quality control. The implications of these findings are applicable to other Western Balkan countries, especially to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.

Canadian Insurance Market in the 21st Century

The article analyzes and compares main trends in the development of the world and Canadian insurance markets with specific emphasis on life, non-life and total premiums written, premiums as percent of GDP, and premiums per capita. The article discusses the structure of the Canadian insurance sector and how it is influenced by the North American economic integration. The impact on the Canadian insurance market of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Canadian government's anti-epidemic measures is being assessed. It is concluded that the main factor determining the development of the Canadian insurance market is its oligopolistic structure. It is pointed out that the growing concentration of capital, as well as relatively weak presence of deposit-taking institutions and innovative firms reduce the intensity of competition on the national insurance market and enable large Canadian insurance companies to benefit from high profit margins.

Status nastavnika na fakultetu – neka sporna pitanja

Since the introduction of the fi rst Public Procurement Act in 2002, the public procurement market has accounted for a signifi cant share of total premiums earned by insurance companies. In that sense, the author in this paper presents the impact of the public procurement legal framework on the insurance sector in the light of the most signifi cant innovations contained in the Public Procurement Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2020. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes the importance of adequate preparation of tender documentation and additional conditions for participation in the procurement of insurance services. Finally, the author analyzes the practice of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, which reveals the most common mistakes of contracting authorities in compiling additional conditions of fi nancial and business capacity.

Money Well Spent? Operations, Mainstreaming, and Fairness of Fair Trade

We examine the operations, fairness, and social implications of fair trade certified products. We consider the market for fair trade certified products, which may serve as a substitute to a regular product. A fair trade organization chooses standards for the certification, namely, the (unit) premium and minimum fraction of fair trade raw materials, to maximize the total premium transferred to farmers. We analyze the operations of various stakeholders in the fair trade value chain, as well as the role and social welfare of fair trade organizations with different philosophies. We characterize the firms’ entry decision in the fair trade market as well as the resulting market equilibrium. Furthermore, we examine the impact of mainstreaming, i.e., whether to allow large‐scale plantations (often owned by large corporates) to be eligible for fair trade certification or not, which is one of the most discussed topics in the fair trade movement. We also identify the welfare allocation among various stakeholders in the value chain under different certification policies, and thereby address the fairness issue of the fair trade market as well as its resulting social welfare implications. Finally, we obtain a number of policy insights and suggestions to support this nascent marketplace.

Premium subsidies and crop insurance demand in Brazil

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of premium subsidies provided by the Brazilian government through the Rural Insurance Premium Subvention Program (PSR) on the quantity demanded for crop insurance by grains producers of southern Brazil.Design/methodology/approachA fixed effects model was applied to an unbalanced panel data of municipalities of southern Brazil considering the years between 2006 and 2015. Three measures of crop insurance demand were considered: level of total premiums, level of total premiums per hectare and level of total liability per hectare.FindingsResults were in line with previous literature, suggesting the existence of a positive, although inelastic, effect of the subsidy level on the demand for crop insurance. However, unitary elasticity estimates were found for all grains when considered total premiums per hectare as crop insurance demand measure.Originality/valueThe investigation focuses on a crop insurance program conducted in a tropical developing country – a completely different background than previously analyzed in literature. In addition, Brazilian government considers the PSR as one of its most important agricultural programs and this paper is pioneer in empirically explain the huge public investments made to the PSR through the estimation of the effects of premium subsidies on the quantity demanded for crop insurance in Brazil.

PNS117 A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING CHINESE CITIZENS' WILLINGNESS TO PURCHASE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE

As a special type of private health insurance in China, tax-deductible private health insurance is promoted by the Chinese government in November of 2015 to stimulate the development of private health insurance. A pre-tax discount up to 2,400 yuan is provided to insurers regardless of health status and guarantees renewal, and requires no . Though with various favorable claims standards, tax-deductible private health insurance only accumulated a premium of 940 million yuan, accounting for only 0.172% of the total premium income in private(544.813 billion yuan) in 2018, indicating an unsatisfactory performance. This paper aims to explore the factors influencing Chinese residents’ willingness to purchase tax-deductible private health insurance. A survey was conducted from November 2018 to April 2019 in Hangzhou city in Zhejiang province of China to collect data on citizens’ willingness to purchase tax-deductible private health insurance, and its potential influencing factors. A binary logit model was used to estimate the impact of each influencing factor explained by the odds ratio. A total of 1613 citizens participated in the survey. Middle-income citizens have the strongest willingness. Higher education level, higher family support pressure, participation in urban employee medical basic insurance or urban resident basic medical insurance, preference to high outpatient reimbursement level and low hospital reimbursement level, knowledge of private health insurance and previous experience of purchasing tax-deductible private health insurance are positively correlated with purchasing willingness. Corresponding measures, such as improving the tax incentive, unifying the private and social insurance, strengthening publicity of tax-deductible private health insurance, can be taken to stimulate the development of private health insurance.