Economies of scale in the United Kingdom ordinary life assurance industry

The effect of size and other economic factors on the expense rate behaviour of UK life insurance companies

“…The only other published work is by Colenutt (1977) for a sample of 49 companies in 1968, so the results reported below update his work by 12 years.…”

“…The firms in the sample are mainly for 1980, so this work updates the last published work, that of Colenutt (1977) by twelve years. This size effect gives clear evidence here for mergers and takeovers by firms of sub-optimal size as the expense rate of an amalgamated firm should be lower than those of the original companies.…”

An update on economies of scale in credit unions

“…Benston, 1972;Colenutt, 1977;Geehan, 1977;Halpern and Mathewson, 1975;Houston and Simon, 1970). However, when a similar approach on credit unions was used, the results were conflicting.…”

“…Benston, 1972;Colenutt, 1977;Geehan, 1977;Halpern and Mathewson, 1975; Houston and Simon, 1970). As important as this topic is for such institutions as commercial banks, savings and loan associations, and insurance companies, the existence of increasing or decreasing returns to scale'is probably even more important to the credit union industry.…”

Economies of scale in the New Zealand life insurance industry∗

“…Praetz [1980] estimated the average cost relationship for 90 life insurers in 1976 and found very strong evidence of economies of scale using premium income and other explanatory variables. For the United Kingdom, Colenutt [1977] sought economies of scale for a sample of 49 ordinary life assurance companies in 1968 using the Houston and Simon approach and found some evidence to support its existence. For Australia, Rutledge and Tuckwell [1974] also used the Houston and Simon approach in their study of 41 Australian companies from the 1970 Annual Report of the Life Insurance Commissioner but found no evidence for the existence of economies of scale.…”