Analyzing the technical efficiency of insurance companies in GCC

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the performances of the insurance sector in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and carry out a comparative analysis for its different units. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse the technical efficiency of insurances in the GCC countries using DEA methodology and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to decompose the change in the efficiency into an intrinsic component reflecting the individual change in technical efficiency and a second component reflecting the impact of the change in the market technology on the individual technical efficiencies of insurance companies. Findings – The study considers 39 insurance firms in the region, with a panel data covering the period 2005-2007. The authors found that the insurance industry in the GCC is moderately efficient and there is large room for improvement. Originality/value – In these very special market conditions, a deep analysis of the overall efficiency of the sector is needed and an assessment of its performance – to the authors' best knowledge so far non-existent – becomes a must to provide insights about the realities and the future trends of the sector. This research uses DEA and MPI to assess the efficiency of the insurance sector in the GCC region and analyses its variation over the period 2005 to 2007.