We aim to understand the effect of market and firm-level concentration on return on equity in the Indian life microinsurance industry (LMI). This research is one of the first attempts to empirically test structure–performance issues in India. Using data on 14 companies that remained active in the LMI market during 2009–2019, we demonstrate that firms in the Indian LMI market scored better on profitability measures whenever competitive pressures were lower. We calculate Herfindahl–Hirschman concentration indexes (HHI), market share and entropy measures and use panel data techniques to find a positive effect of concentration and a negative effect of market share. We conclude that LMI-specialised insurers in India perform better than diversified insurers.

我们旨在了解市场和公司层面的集中度对印度人寿小额保险业（LMI）的股本回报率的影响。这项研究是对印度的结构-性能问题进行经验测试的首批尝试之一。使用2009-2019年期间在LMI市场上活跃的14家公司的数据，我们证明，只要竞争压力降低，印度LMI市场上的公司在获利能力指标上的得分就更高。我们计算赫芬达尔·赫希曼集中度指数（HHI），市场份额和熵测度，并使用面板数据技术找到集中度的正效应和市场份额的负效应。我们得出的结论是，印度的LMI专业保险公司的表现要优于多元化保险公司。