A Comparative Analysis On the Efficiency Of Insurance Companies Using DEA Method

Abstract

Despite the remarkable growth in the insurance industry over the past two decades and the significant expansion of takaful industry, few studies evaluate the performance of Takaful vs. conventional insurance firms in term of efficiency and especially in the MENA zone, thus this study examines the performance of conventional and takaful firms in the middle east and north Africa region (MENA) using data envelopment analysis method (DEA) to define the better actor in term of efficiency. The empirical results obtained for 15 conventional insurance companies and 15 takaful companies for the period 2016-2018 showed that conventional insurance companies has been significantly more efficient in 2016 and which after the efficiency scores of takaful companies continue to increase to come to very close level to its counterpart and as a result we marked a slight difference in term of efficiency in 2017 and 2018 and despite the noticeable effort of Islamic insurance companies and the non-significant difference still conventional companies are more efficient in term of numbers. This study being the only one measuring the efficiency of conventional vs takaful insurance companies in the MENA zone, offers key implications for decision makers, regulators, and managers associated with the insurance industry in this area and gives a global vision on the progress of the competition on the market.