Title: Competition in Indian life insurance industry: post liberalisation evidence

Authors: Tapas Kumar Parida; Debashis Acharya

Addresses: Economic Research Department, State Bank of India, Corporate Centre, Madame Cama Road, Nariman Point, 400021 Mumbai, India ' School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, 500046 Hyderabad, India

Abstract: This paper makes an attempt to assess the state of competition in the Indian life insurance industry for the period 2000-01 to 2014-15 highlighting the nature of competition after the economic reforms in the economy. The study is based on secondary data of the insurance companies for the period 2000-01 to 2014-15. A set of concentration measures such as the k-concentration ratio (CRk), Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI), the Hall-Tideman index (HTI), Horvath index (HOV), Entropy index (ENT), Ginevicius index, and GRS index is estimated to assess the state of competition. Accuracy of these indices is also tested along with use of concentration curves and indices. Among all the concentration measures, HHI, HTI and GIN indices depict the low market concentration of life insurance companies, compared to other indices. The index value indicates that though the concentration in the market has declined but still it remains at a relatively higher level.

Keywords: market structure; concentration; competition; India; life insurance industry; post-liberalisation; economic reforms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBCG.2016.079944

International Journal of Business Competition and Growth, 2016 Vol.5 No.1/2/3, pp.110 - 136

Received: 02 Jun 2016
Accepted: 24 Jun 2016
Published online: 22 Oct 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article