<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Accession of Croatia to the EU brought legal, regulatory and market changes for the insurance companies. The question that arises is whether the new environment in which the companies operate has improved their efficiency. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to separately estimate the efficiency of non-life and life insurance industry in Croatia and to compare it through the period before (2009-2012) and after (2013-2018) Croatian accession to the EU. The research is based on the Data Envelopment Analysis and the obtained results indicate an average increase in overall technical efficiency in both, non-life and life sector in period after Croatia’s accession to the EU. Still, this increase was not proved to be significant. Additionally, although increase in pure technical efficiency was significant in non-life sector, an insignificant slight decrease is recorded in life sector. Finally, insurers conducting (non)life business activities are mainly operating at increasing returns to scale.</p>
</abstract>

Accession of Croatia to the EU brought legal, regulatory and market changes for the insurance companies. The question that arises is whether the new environment in which the companies operate has improved their efficiency. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to separately estimate the efficiency of non-life and life insurance industry in Croatia and to compare it through the period before (2009-2012) and after (2013-2018) Croatian accession to the EU. The research is based on the Data Envelopment Analysis and the obtained results indicate an average increase in overall technical efficiency in both, non-life and life sector in period after Croatia’s accession to the EU. Still, this increase was not proved to be significant. Additionally, although increase in pure technical efficiency was significant in non-life sector, an insignificant slight decrease is recorded in life sector. Finally, insurers conducting (non)life business activities are mainly operating at increasing returns to scale.

Has Accession to the European Union Affected the Efficiency of Croatian Insurance Companies?

Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21 000 Split, University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism

Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21 000 Split, University of Split

R. Boškovića 33, 21 000 Split, University of Split

University Department of Forensic Sciences

Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Accession of Croatia to the EU brought legal, regulatory and market changes for the insurance companies. The question that arises is whether the new...

Has Accession to the European Union Affected the Efficiency of Croatian Insurance Companies?

Published Online: May 29, 2021

Page range: 67 - 98

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/zireb-2021-0004

Keywords
efficiency, Croatian insurance companies, accession to the EU, DEA

© 2021 Maja Pervan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Has Accession to the European Union Affected the Efficiency of Croatian Insurance Companies?

Published Online: May 29, 2021

Page range: 67 - 98

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/zireb-2021-0004

Keywordsefficiency, Croatian insurance companies, accession to the EU, DEA

© 2021 Maja Pervan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
efficiency, Croatian insurance companies, accession to the EU, DEA