Investigating the effect of insurance market structure on the efficiency of insurance companies in Iran

Competition and monopoly are two very important categories in the market structure that are analyzed depending on the conditions of society. Theoretically, the dominance of a monopoly structure in one sector leads to disruption of the optimal allocation of resources for economic rents. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between insurance market structure and the efficiency of insurance companies. The share of insurance companies in sales has been used as a symbol of market structure. The present study is a panel data method for ۲۱ public and private insurance companies during the period ۱۳۸۷-۱۳۸۷. The results of this study show that the share of insurance companies in sales has the greatest impact on profits (positive and significant effect) and the efficiency of human resources have a negative and significant effect on profits of insurance companies, both of which indicate that The structure of the insurance market, despite the multiplicity of insurance companies due to the inefficiency of manpower and the attention of insurance companies to earn more profit, is still monopolistic.

Keywords:

Market structure , corporate profits , insurance industry , panel data method