The purpose of this research is to examine whether insurers have improved their economic performance through efficiency as a reaction to the prolonged period of low interest rates. The results of an analysis of 22 years of data, using a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach (DEA), show that there is an inverse relationship between efficiency and interest rate. The non-life insurance group had a superior level of efficiency compared with that of the life insurance group. It seems that life insurance companies, to some extent, transferred their inefficiency to customers to maintain their solvency. Additionally, this research shows that companies with substantial market power and bancassurance exceeded the performance of the rest of the industry.

本研究的目的是检验保险公司是否通过效率提高了经济绩效，以此作为对长期低利率的反应。使用两阶段数据包络分析方法 (DEA) 对 22 年数据的分析结果表明，效率与利率之间存在反比关系。与寿险组相比，非寿险组的效率水平更高。人寿保险公司似乎在某种程度上将他们的低效率转移给了客户以维持他们的偿付能力。此外，这项研究表明，拥有强大市场力量和银行保险的公司的表现超过了行业其他公司。