Empirical Analysis of Determinant Factors of the Corporate Performance of Life Insurance Companies in China

摘要

The life insurance industry in China still stays at a primary stage of development. It is characterized by small size, low penetration, and low density. Nevertheless, China’s large population, together with the emerging middle class, and the continuously improving social and economic environment, promise the life insurance industry a bright future. The government’s limited pension reserves cannot effectively deal with the aging problem, implying that commercial insurance companies are bound to play a more critical role in alleviating the aging problem. In 2014, Chinese government issued a series of favorable policies. Life insurance companies are now allowed to invest a certain proportion of premium in high risk issues and set the return on investment (ROI) of saving insurance products higher than 2.5%. Changes in external factors and policies prompt life insurance companies to change their operation mode so that they can meet the market demand. This paper empirically analyzes operational factors (such as structure of distribution channels, structure of products, human resource, market power, etc.) that affect the corporate performance of Chinese life insurance companies. The paper aims to help life insurance companies choose a proper distribution channel, focus marketing expenses and R&D on the right product, set the scale and the salesman team at a rational size, and adjust the compensation ratio to a rational level. The data are gathered from 36 high-ranked Chinese life insurance companies from 2010 to 2014. The panel data set is analyzed via fixed effect model and panel threshold model. To avoid spurious regression, a series of preliminary tests are conducted. The results show that percentage of revenue from bancassurance channel, percentage of revenue from specialized insurance agencies, percentage of revenue from saving product, percentage of revenue from group product, size of insurers, market share of insurers, and solvency rate all have negative effect on the corporate performance of life insurance companies. If an insurer were a subsidiary of a bank, its percentage of revenue from bancassureance would have a positive effect on its corporate performance. The paper contributes to existing literature on how particular distribution channels and products of Chines life insurance companies affect their corporate performance.