Empirical analysis of Japanese non-life insurance firms : the impact of auto insurance upon the Performance of the firms

我们收集了1970 - 2003年日本非寿险表格的面板数据。这些公司包括东京Kaijyou， Sonpo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo, Nihon Koua, Aioi Sonpo, Nisshin Kasai, Nichidou Kasai, Fuji Kasai, kyyouei Kasai， Asahi Kasai和Nissei Douwa。对于每个公司，计算了以下变量。车险占比=车险收入/车险总收入车险份额=企业车险收入/ 11家企业车险总收入车险价格=车险收入/车险保单数量资金成本、人工成本和代理成本是非寿险企业的三大成本。我们使用了一个看似无关的回归模型，它由一个超对数成本函数和三个成本分担方程组成。成本效率由虚拟变量的系数捕获。计算出的低效率被转换成从1（成本最低的低效率）到12（最高的低效率）不等的等级。引入有限因变量模型来处理这些随机数据。我们使用一个有序概率模型来评估解释变量对无效率等级的影响。这些解释变量是上面显示的三个关于汽车保险的变量和其他几个。从有序概率模型的估计结果来看，车险的三个变量对衡量成本无效率的排名有显著影响。因此，我们得出结论，汽车保险对日本非寿险公司的业绩有重大影响。

We collected panel data of the Japanese non-life insurance forms from 1970 to 2003. These firms consist of Tokyo Kaijyou, Sonpo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo, Nihon Koua, Aioi Sonpo, Nisshin Kasai, Nichidou Kasai, Fuji Kasai, Kyouei Kasai, Asahi Kasai and Nissei Douwa. For each firm, the following variables were computed.Proportion of auto insurance = Revenue from auto insurance/total revenueAuto insurance share = Revenue from auto insurance for the firm/Total revenue from auto insurance of 11 firmsPrice of auto insurance = Revenue from auto insurance/No of auto insurance policiesCapital cost, labor cost and agency cost are the three major costs on the non-life insurance firms. We used a Seemingly-unrelated regression model, which consists of a translog cost function and three cost-share equations. Cost efficiency was captured by the coefficients of the dummy variables. The computed inefficiencies were transformed into ranks which varies from 1(lowest cost inefficiency) to 12(highest inefficiency).A limited-dependent variable model was introduced to manipulate these rand data. We used an ordered-probability model to Evaluate the impact of explanatory variables upon the inefficiency ranks. These explanatory variables are the three variables concerning auto insurance shown above and several others.From the result of the estimation of the ordered-probability model, we observed that the three variables of auto insurance have an significant effect upon the ranks which measure cost inefficiency. Thus, we concluded that auto insurance has major impact upon the performance of the Japanese non-life insurance firms.